BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

<• 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


RESOURCES 


OF 


ALBANY  COUNTY, 
WYOMING 


1913 


d  Z3OE 


toi 


RESOURCES 


DIRECTORS. 

H.  D.  Beemer  Jacob  Berner  C.   S.  Greenbaum  A.   E.   Holliday 

A.  C.  Jones  H.  G.  Knight,  President  H.  A.  Gish 

Fred    A.    Miller  C.    D.     Spaldin? 


EXECUTIVE   COMMITTEE. 

W.   H.    Holliday  Jacob   Berner  James   M.    Christensen 

H.  A.  Gish,  Treasurer  J.  E.  Winslow,  Chairman 

R.    W.   Innes.    Secretary 


The  Laramie  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce offers  some  statements 
of  facts  for  the  information  of 
tourists,  investors  and  home- 
seekers.  It  will  be  a  pleasure 
to  furnish  you  with  detailed  in- 
formation upon  any  of  the  re- 
sources of  Albany  County. 

LARAMIE 
CHAMBER  OF  COMMERCE 

Office,  Connor'Hotel  Building 

LARAMIE,        -        -       WYOMING 


ROBERT  W.  INNES,  SECRETARY 

1913 


ALBANY  COUNTY 
WYOMING 


As'L.3 


ALBANY  COUNTY  NEEDS 

Men  of  push  and  brains  to  aid  in  the  development  of  rich 
farming  lands,  for  stock  raising,  dairying,  hog  raising,  poul- 
try raising,  truck  farming,  and  small  fruit  farming  reap 
golden  harvests. 

Capital  to  develop  our  deposits  of  soda,  lime  and  sand 
^particularly  adapted  to  manufacture  of  glass),  bentonite,  as- 
bestos, and  natural  deposits  of  Portland  cement;  coal,  oil  and 
natural  gas ;  gold,  silver,  lead,  copper,  iron,  graphite,  plumbago 
and  other  minerals  with  which  the  plains,  hills  and  mountains 
abound. 

The  development  of  our  large  and  valuable  tracts  of  timber 
lands. 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  presenting  this  pamphlet  to  the  public,  the  Laramie 
Chamber  of  Commerce  fully  realizes  the  futility  of  telling  all 
there  is  to  say  relating  to  the  resources  of  Albany  County  in 
one  small  book.  The  purpose  of  this  publication  is  simply  to 
direct  attention  to  a  few  of  the  resources  and  advantages  of 
this  county,  in  the  belief  that  they  will  be  of  interest  to  the 
tourist,  investor  and  homeseeker. 

Albany  County  invites  you,  whether  on  pleasure  bent,  or 
seeking  to  better  your  condition,  and  it  is  the  purpose  of  the 
Laramie  Chamber  of  Commerce  to  see  that  accurate  represen- 
tations are  made  for  the  guidance  of  all  who  seek  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  boundless  opportunities  of  this  large  and 
prosperous,  but  thinly  settled  part  of  the  state  of  Wyoming. 

All  authorities  unite  in  stating  that  Albany  County  can 
support  in  happiness  and  prosperity  at  least  fifty  thousand 
more  people.  The  lands  are  fertile,  water  abundant,  transpor- 
tation facilities  good,  roads  among  the  best  anywhere,  scenic 
attractions  worth  traveling  across  the  country  to  see,  excellent 
climate,  an  invigorating  atmosphere,  and  many  other  advan- 
tages which  are  worth  while.  Conditions  are  far  more  favora- 
ble for  success  than  in  any  of  the  older,  thickly  populated  com- 
munities. 

All  who  look  to  Albany  County  for  a  future  home  should 
remember,  however,  that  the  same  qualities  of  industry,  pru- 
dence and  perseverance  are  required  for  success  here  that 
would  be  needed  anywhere.  No  one  should  come  to  Albany 
county  expecting  to  "get  rich  quick",  to  achieve  success  with- 
out work  and  well  applied  knowledge.  Above  all,  no  one 
should  come  to  Albany  County  expecting  to  find  immediate 
employment  in  any  line.  When  you  come,  bring  enough  funds 
to  provide  traveling  and  living  expenses  for  a  considerable 
period  while  you  are  visiting  different  localities  and  searching 
for  the  opportunity  which  appeals  to  you  and  in  which  you 
have  confidence  ydu  can  succeed.  Do  not  build  up  false  hopes 
of  fabulous  affiuence  and  easy  life  without  work. 

A  warm  welcome  into  churches,  schools,  fraternal  organi- 
zations and  other  societies,  and  into  the  large  hearts  of  the 
western  people  awaits  every  new  citizen  who  comes  to  Albany 
County  with  the  honest  purpose  of  achieving  independence 
and  making  a  home. 


ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING 


Albany,  as  one  of  the  southern  tier  of  counties  in  the  state, 
has  some  advantages  in  its  location  and  topographical  features 
which  have  not  been  fully  discussed  in  any  publication  of  this 
kind.  The  total  area  of  Albany  County  is  3,248,640  acres, 
about  one-third  of  which  is  listed  for  taxation.  Tax  valuation 
for  1912  was  $14,873,790.96.  In  1910  the  population  of  the 
county  was  11,574,  two-thirds  of  whom  live  in  the  City  of  Lar- 
amie, which  is  the  third  city  in  size  in  the  state.  This  leaves 
approximately  one  per  square  mile  living  in  the  country,  and, 
according  to  the  last  census,  the  average  size  of  Albany  County 
ranches  was  over  2,300  acres.  The  Laramie  range  of  moun- 
tains extends  the  whole  length  of  the  county  on  the  east  and 
the  Medicine  Bow  range  cuts  through  the  southwest  corner. 
Between  these  ranges  of  mountains  there  is  a  large  body  of 
arable  land  on  the  Laramie  Plains  which  depends  for  its  water 
supply  on  the  Big  and  Little  Laramie  Rivers,  with  their  tribu- 
taries, and  Rock  Creek.  To  the  north  there  are  some  devel- 
oped ranches  along  the  North  Laramie  River,  which  runs 
south  of  Laramie  Peak,  the  highest  point  in  the  Laramie  range 
of  hills.  Laramie  Peak  has  an  altitude  of  10,000  feet.  The 
Medicine  Bow  Mountains,  west  of  Laramie,  reach  an  altitude 
of  13,000  feet  and  supply  the  perpetual  snows  which  make  the 
Laramie  Rivers  perennial  and  supply  irrigation  water  for  the 
larger  canals  on  the  Laramie  Plains  and  in  Laramie  County  to 
the  east.  On  the  eastern  border  of  the  county  the  Sibylee, 
Chugwater  and  other  streams  supply  water  for  many  stock 
ranches  and  small  farms  which  are  located  in  valleys  among 
the  Laramie  Hills.  The  mean  elevation  of  the  county  is  placed 
at  6,500  feet,  but  the  larger  part  of  the  agricultural  lands  are 
close  to  7,000  feet  above  the  sea.  The  Laramie  Plains  cover 
approximately  one-half  the  area  of  Albany  County.  It  is  a 
high  plateau  of  comparatively  level  land,  varying  in  altitude 
from  a  little  less  than  7,000  feet  on  the  north  to  almost  8,000 
feet  on  the  southern  boundary.  This  plateau  has  the  appear- 
ance of  a  basin,  as  it  is  partially  surrounded  by  the  two  ranges 
of  mountains  named  above.  The  plains  are  crossed  from  south 
to  north  by  the  Union  Pacific  railway. 

The'  Laramie,  Hahns  Peak  and  Pacific  railroad  runs 
through  the  county  from  Laramie  to  the  west.  The  Denver, 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  9 

Laramie  and  Northwestern  railroad,  now  under  construction, 
will  also  pass  through  the  county  from  south  to  north.  Alto- 
gether there  are  about  150  miles  of  railroad  in  the  county. 

We  have  excellent  country  roads  to  all  parts  of  the  county 
upon  which  it  is  a  delight  to  travel,  with  team  or  auto. 

A  number  of  important  irrigation  ditches  have  been  con- 
structed to  divert  water  from  the  large  reservoirs  in  the 
county.  Since  all  the  water  available  during  the  irrigation  sea- 
son was  appropriated,  it  seemed  that  development  must  neces- 
sarily cease.  The  far-sighted  thought  otherwise,  however. 
Through  the  fall,  winter  and  early  spring  months  millions  of 
cubic  feet  of  water  rolled  down  the  river  channels  of  the  coun- 
try, rinding  its  way  to  the  ocean  to  be  forever  lost  to  man. 
"Why  not  conserve  that  water  and  let  it  down  in  times  of 
scarcity  ?"  was  the  thought  of  those  who  gave  the  matter  study 
and  investigation.  Surveys  were  made,  and  a  number  of  natu- 
ral reservoir  sites  were  located ;  ditches  have  been  run  to  these 
sites,  grades,  dams  and  other  structures  have  been  built,  and 
when  all  the  present  undertakings  are  completed — many  of 
them  being  already  completed — more  than  half  a  million  acre 
feet  of  water  will  be  impounded  each  year  to  be  turned  loose 
upon  the  barren  plains  when  the  water  is  needed  for  the  growth 
of  plants. 

The  different  projects  and  the  acre  feet  capacity  of  the 
reservoirs  are  given  below.  For  the  benefit  of  those  not  famil- 
iar with  irrigation  terms,  the  following  explanation  is  given — 
an  acre  foot  is  the  amount  of  water  that  will  cover  one  acre 
one  foot  in  depth,  and  is  considered  sufficient,  with  the  natural 
rainfall  in  most  sections,  for  the  .irrigation  of  one  acre  of  land 
for  one  year. 

Acre 
Feet. 

Rock  Creek  Conservation  Co 210,000 

James  Lake  Project 40,000 

Hosier   40,000 

Laramie  Development  Company 20,000 

Laramie  Water  Company — 

Lake  Hattie  Reservoir   133,000 

Bell  Reservoir   62,000 

Bath   Reservoir   37,ooo 

Glendevey  Reservoir   45,ooo — 275,000 

Land. 

There  is  still  considerable  government  land  in  the  county 
open  to  homestead,  desert  claim,  or  reclamation  under  the 
Carey  act.  The  reader  should  understand  that  government 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  n 

lands  which  are  open  to  entry  require  considerable  expendi- 
ture of  capital,  as  water  must  be  secured  before  the  soil  may 
be  placed  under  a  high  state  of  cultivation.  Developed  ranches 
can  be  purchased  at  from  ten  dollars  to  seventy  dollars  per 
acre,  though  lands  have  greatly  increased  in  value  with  the 
beginning  of  better  cropping  systems  and  the  general-  in- 
crease in  our  agricultural  development.  We  will  endeavor 
to  give  authentic  data  of  climate,  farm  crops,  live  stock  and 
irrigation  which  will  indicate  the  possibilities  of  more  com- 
plete development.  Albany  County  needs  more  farmers  and 
ranchmen,  and  the  'fact  that  all  those  who  are  now  living  on 
ranches  in  the  county  are  highly  prosperous  is  most  encourag- 
ing to  the  newcomer  who  would  make  his  home  in  this  section 
of  the  state. 

Location  With  Regard  to  Market. 

This  county  could  hardly  be  more  advantageously  located 
in  relation  to  market  for  its  produce.  Live  stock  shipments 
may  be  sent  directly  to  any  of  the  great  Missouri  River  mar- 
kets, to  Denver  or  Chicago.  The  surrounding  country  to  be  sup- 
plied with  farm  produce  is  very  large  and  as  yet  the  produc- 
tion has  never  been  equal  to  the  demand.  Flour,  butter,  cheese, 
eggs,  poultry,  fish,  potatoes,  vegetables,  small  fruits  and  meats 
are  shipped  in  in  enormous  quantities,  while  land,  water  and 
climate  are  all  suitable  to  the  production  of  these  things  at 
home.  All  that  is  needed  are  farmers  and  manufacturers  to  pro- 
duce them  at  home.  To  the  south  is  the  great  North  Park 
country,  which  must  depend  on  outside  producers  for  its  agri- 
cultural supplies.  The  surrounding  mountains  and  mining 
camps  and  towns  all  supply  the  best  of  market,  and  because  of 
the  distance  of  our  agricultural  lands  from  others,  prices  for 
farm  produce  are  better  than  in  the  outside  general  market. 
For  example,  potatoes  are  always  worth  from  30  to  50  cents 
more  per  hundred  than  they  are  at  Greeley  or  Denver,  because 
potatoes  from  these  regions  cannot  compete  without  paying 
that  amount  of  additional  freight  tariff. 


TOURING  IN  WYOMING. 

To  the  automobile  tourist  there  are  few  spots  that  afford 
more  enjoyment  than  Wyoming. 

Entering  the  state  at  Pine  Bluffs,  on  the  eastern  bound- 
ary line,  there  is  a  succession  of  beauty  spots  and  points  of  in- 
terest until  one  leaves  the  state  at  Evanston,  having  covered  a 
distance  of  about  475  miles,  .and  doing  it,  if  one  cares  to  go 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  13 

after  the  record,  in  about  twenty-six  hours.  However,  if  one 
really  wishes  to  go  some,  there  are  places  where  the  automo- 
bile puts  the  blush  to  the  fastest  express  train.  One  has  only 
to  choose  and  he  will  find  on  this  trip  just  what  he  wishes. 

The  transcontinental  tourist  will  find  much  of  interest  in 
this  journey.  He  will  find  that  he  has  been  gradually  climbing 
since  crossing  the  Missouri  or  Mississippi  river  until  he  reaches 
Sherman  Hill,  a  few  miles  east  of  Laramie,  the  steepest  climb 
of  the  journey.  At  other  points  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  range 
he  will  find  rifts  in  the  mountains  that  make  the  journey  less  la- 
borious, but  none  more  inspiring  and  enjoyable.  He  climbs 
steadily  until  the  crest  is  reached,  and  then  he  plunges  down- 
ward, finding  a  down-hill  trip,  so  far  as  altitude  is  concerned, 
until  the  waters  of  the  Pacific  lave  the  wheels  of  the  auto. 

Along  the  way  every  convenience  is  found  that  one  could 
hope  for  on  a  journey.  From  Sherman  he  gains  a  fine 
view  of  the  Laramie  Valley,  lying  on  either  side  of  the  Lara- 
mie River,  upon  which  the  roads  are  good  more  days  in  the 
year  than  in  any  section  of  the  west.  The  valley  is  forty  to 
fifty  miles  wide,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  long, 
smooth  and  level,  the  roads  being  mere  trails  across  the  surface, 
lying  on  gravel  and  free  from  mud,  soft  places  and  other  ob- 
jectionable features.  These  trails,  some  of  them,  are  as  old  as 
the  day  when  the  buffalo  and  red  man  roamed  the  valley ;  oth- 
ers of  later  date,  made  when  the  white  man  became  an  inhabi- 
tant of  the  region,  are  wonderful  examples  of  natural  roads. 
Laramie  lies  well  on  the  transcontinental  route  from  the  east 
to  the  west,  affording  alike  an  easy  stage  from  Pine  Bluffs  and 
Denver  and  a  safe  harbor  when  one  desires  rest  from  the  fa- 
tigue of  a  long  journey.  It  is  easily  accessible,  the  distance 
between  Laramie  and  Denver  being  ordinarily  covered  within 
six  or  seven  hours,  and  more  rapidly  if  one  cares  to  speed  his 
machine,  and  all  the  way  through  a  rich  section  of  country, 
passing  through  some  excellent  towns  and  cities,  paralleling 
some  of  the  finest  railroads  in  the  west ;  mountain  scenery  no 
finer  in  the  United  States ;  crossing  mountain  streams  teeming 
with  trout ;  in  the  region  of  wild  game  that  will  tempt  in  sea- 
son. Rich  farms  and  extensive  ranches,  where  the  tourist  will 
be  brought  into  touch  with  the  most  hospitable  people  on 
earth — the  true  Westerner,  who  has  nothing  too  good  for  the 
stranger  within  his  gates,  with  open  heart  and  hand  extended, 
friend  to  friend,  whose  fame  is  noted  for  caring  for  those  who 
need  care,  and  whose  benison  is  sincere  when  the  parting 
comes  and  the  stranger  speeds  on  his  way. 

From  Laramie,  one  of  the  most  important  points  on  the 
transcontinental  route,  through  the  Rocky  Mountain  region. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  15 

good  automobile  roads  radiate  in  every  direction.  Here  will 
be  found  a  road  leading  to  Walden,  where  lies  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  coal  beds  in  the  world,and  through  primeval  iorests 
of  virgin  pine.  To  Douglas  there  is  another  excellent  highway, 
opening  into  an 'oil  region  that  must  in  time  make  Wyoming 
one  of  the  most  noted  states  in  the  Union.  Westward  there 
is  a  good  highway  to  Medicine  Bow,  made  famous  through 
Owen  Wister's  splendid  western  novel,  "The  Virginian", 
thence  to  Fort  Steele,  Rawlins,  the  Continental  Divide,  Rock 
Springs,  and  Green  River,  where  one  passes  from  the  slope  to- 
wards the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  slope  whose  waters  flow  into 
tiie  Pacific  Ocean  and  the  Gulf  of  California,  the  divide  being 
imperceptible,  so  gentle  the  slope  at  this  point.  Westward 
one  crosses  the  great  Red  Desert,  a  vast  plain  seemingly  bar- 
ren, but  abounding  with  animal  life  in  season,  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  sheep  nibble  the  soft  forage  wrhich  nature  has 
provided. 

We  pass  through  Rock  Springs,  another  vast  coal  area, 
where  some  of  the  best  grade  of  coal  in  the  west  is  mined.  From 
this  point  a  road  diverges  towards  Yellowstone  National  Park, 
that  wonderland  of  the  world,  whose  beauties  are  becoming 
more  and  more  attractive  to  the  people  as  this  newer  mode  of 
travel  is  open  to  them.  The  road  passes  through  some  won- 
derful scenery  before  reaching  the  park,  and  there  one  is  lost 
in  wonder  at  the  majesty  of  creation  in  the  mighty  upheavals 
that  at  one  time  brought  the  great  sea  that  once  covered  this 
section  of  the  earth,  to  the  present  tremendous  ridge  of  granite 
that  extends  from  the  north  to  the  south.  The  Park  is  a  play- 
ground for  those  who  would  "See  America  first",  and  one  of 
the  best  roads  lies  through  Laramie,  Rawlins,  Rock  Springs, 
the  beautiful  Eden  Valley,  and  Pinedale,  thence  to  the  Jackson 
Hole  and  into  the  southern  limits  of  the  Park. 

At  Evanston  one  enters  the  Wasatch  Mountains  and  very 
shortly  crosses  the  state  line  into  Utah.  One  cannot  but  admit 
that  every  foot  of  the  way  has  been  full  of  interest.  Some  of  the 
finest  fishing  in  the  world  is  found  on  the  trip.  At  Laramie  the 
streams  are  filled  with  trout  stocked  annually  by  the 
hatcheries  maintained  by  the  state,  assisted  by  the  govern- 
ment. Wild  game  abounds  through  the  mountains — elk,  deer, 
antelope,  bear,  mountain  lions,  and  game  birds,  both  on  land 
and  water. 

Scenic  beauty  spots  are  everywhere.  Mountain  climbing, 
fishing,  hunting,  trapping,  boating  and  strolls  among  the  deep 
pine  forests,  bring  one  very  close  to  nature. 

Is  it  to  be  wondered  that  the  transcontinental  tourist  has 
discarded  the  stuffy  Pullman  for  the  more  comfortable  and 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  17 

exhilarating  automobile,  seeing  things  on  his  trip  that  he 
never  dreamed  existed  as  he  flitted  along,  covering  the  distance 
from  ocean  to  ocean  in  the  fastest  time  possible? 

It  is  the  coming  pleasure  tour  and  every  day  adds  to  the 
wealth  and  knowledge  to  be  gained  by  travel  through  one's 
own  country,  over  good  roads ;  the  sweet,  pure  air  filling  one's 
lungs,  and  the  steady  hum  of  the  automobile  engines  making 
glad  music  to  the  tired  mind. 


LARAMIE,  WYOMING. 

Laramie,  Wyoming,  is  a  city  of  8,500  population,  situated 
on  the  Union  Pacific  main  line  of  railroad,  573  miles  west  of 
Omaha.  Altitude  7.145  feet.  Has  an  average  of  300  days  of 
sunshine  during  the  year.  The  winters  are  ordinarily  dry  and 
bracing  and  the  summers  are  ideal  for  work  or  pleasure,  while 
the  spring  months  are  usually  cool  and  moist.  The  fall  months 
are  nearly  a  perpetual  Indian  summer. 

Laramie  is  the  county  seat  of  Albany  County  and  the  See 
City  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Wyoming.  Here  is  located 
the  University  of  Wyoming,  with  its  several  colleges,  includ- 
ing the  State  Normal  School,  the  School  of  Mines  and  Engi- 
neering, the  Agricultural  College,  and  the  United  States 
Experiment  Station. 

A  special,  annaul  congressional  appropriation  of  $5,000.00 
is  set  aside  for  the  breeding,  feeding  and  development  of  the 
various  breeds  of  sheep. 

Laramie  is  pre-eminently  a  City  of  Homes,  where  more 
families  own  their  own  homes  than  is  common  in  Western  cit- 
ies, and  is  properly  called  the  educational  center  of  Wyoming. 
In  addition  to  the  University,  there  is  an  excellent  system  of 
public  schools  with  fine  school  buildings,  including  a  modern 
high  school  building  erected  in  1910. 

A  well  equipped  free  library  supported  by  public  taxation 
contains  16,000  volumes  and  has  an  average  of  two  thousand 
five  hundred  regular  applicants  for  books.  The  library  works 
in  conjunction  with  the  schools  in  the  city  and  county.  The 
culture  and  consequent  moral  influence  of  a  well  sustained 
library  more  than  compensates  for  the  time  and  expense  in  es- 
tablishing and  maintaining  such  an  adjunct  to  the  educational 
institutions  of  a  city. 

Building  Association. 

The  Albany  Mutual  Building  Association  has  had  an  act- 
ive part  in  the  building  of  homes  in  Laramie  for  the  past  25 
years.  Authorized  capital,  five  million  dollars.  Number  of 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  19 

shares  outstanding,  twelve  thousand,  of  the  par  value  of  $200 
each.    Total  bills  receivable,  $877,697.90. 

Banks.  . 

First  National  Bank Capital,  $100,000.00 

Albany  County  National  Bank Capital,     100,000.00 

First  State  Bank Capital,     100,000.00 

Postal  Savings  Bank. 

Churches. 

The  following  religious  organizations  own  very  good 
church  buildings,  viz. :  The  Catholics,  Episcopalians,  Meth- 
odists, Baptists,  Presbyterians,  German  Lutherans,  Scandina- 
vian Lutherans,  and  the  Swedish  Mission  Church.  Christian 
Science  has  many  highly  intelligent  advocates  in  county  and 
city. 

Special  Orders. 

The  Masons,  Odd  Fellows,  Knights  of  Pythias,  Elks,  Ea- 
gles and  Moose  each  own  fine  or  very  creditable  lodge  build- 
ings. . 

Hotels. 

The  most  important  always  to  the  traveling  public  is  the 
hotel  facilities  of  towns.  In  this  particular  Laramie  is  exceed- 
ingly fortunate.  Four  very  good  hotels  furnish  the  city  with 
hotel  accommodations  far  exceeding  such  accommodations  in 
many  larger  towns. 

Few  tow'ns,  if  any,  of  equal  population,  have  as  fine  streets, 
as  many  miles  of  concrete  sidewalks,  or  a  more  complete  sys- 
tem of  sewers.  The  Laramie  River,  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  beautiful  of  mountain  streams,  flows  by  the  west  side  of 
the  city.  The  health  of  Laramie  is  as  nearly  perfect  as  pure 
air,  pure  water  and  the  best  sanitary  conditions  can  make  it. 
Therefore  the  death  rate  probably  is  lower  than  in  any  other 
town  in  the  United  States. 

Theaters. 

Two  theaters,  one  modern  in  every  particular,  secure  the 
finest  attractions  in  the  theatrical  line  as  well  as  in  the  movies. 

Fire  Department  and  Water  Supply. 

The  city  has  an  up-to-date,  paid,  fire  department  with  a 
complete  alarm  system. 

The  present  water  supply  is  from  a  large  spring  at  the 
foot  of  the  hills  about  two  miles  east  of  the  city  and  at  an  alti- 
tude of  125  feet  greater  than  the  average  level  of  the  city. 
This  maintains  a  gravity  pressure  of  about  45  pounds,  ever 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


21 


ready  in  case  of  emergency  and  for  domestic  use.  The  flow 
of  said  spring  is  about  1,800,000  gallons  every  twenty-four 
hours.  The  water  is  first  run  into  a  cement  reservoir  near  the 
spring  and  from  there  conveyed  to  and  throughout  the  city  in 
heavy  iron  pipes.  The  use  of  this  water  is  free  for  all  pur- 
poses within  the  city. 

Bonds  have  been  authorized  for  the  purpose  of  securing 
the  water  from  another  spring  of  equal  flow.  Thus  is  secured 
for  many  years  to  come  a  bountiful  supply  of  pure  spring  water 
for  domestic  use. 

The  great  areas  of  hay  lands  and  highly  nutritious  grasses 
in  the  valleys  of  the  Laramie  rivers  make  this  point  an  ideal 
place  for  stock  yards  for  feeding  stock  in  transit ;  there  being 
an  average  of  more  than  10,000  cars  of  cattle,  horses  and  sheep 
fed  here  in  transit  over  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  each  year. 

Great  reservoirs  and  irrigation  canals  are  being  con- 
structed to  be  supplied  from  the  waters  of  the  two  Laramie 
Rivers  and  from  Rock  Creek  that  will  bring  many  thousand 
acres  of  fertile  land  under  cultivation.  The  irrigation  works 
above  referred  to  have  been  constructed  at  the  cost  of  several 
million  dollars,  making  possible  agriculture  and  stock  raising  to 
an  extent  unexcelled  in  any  part  of  the  country.  Unimproved 


Carnegie   Public  Library. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  23 

lands  are  offered  at  tempting  prices  compared  with  irrigated 
lands  in  other  states. 

Plaster  deposits  lie  in  practically  unlimited  quantities  near 
the  city  and  supply  two  large  plaster  mills  with  material  for 
the  shipment  of  hundreds  of  carloads  of  cement  plaster  each 
year. 

The  railroad  facilities  are  the  Union  Pacific  and  the 
Laramie,  Hahns  Peak  and  Pacific,  the  latter  opening  up  a  sec- 
tion of  wonderful  resources  in  southern  Wyoming  and  north- 
ern Colorado. 

A  fair  statement  of  the  varied  resources  of  Albany  County 
and  the  country  tributary  to  Laramie,  contributed  by  the  most 
reliable  authority,  is  the  basis  for  the  contents  of  this  pam- 
phlet. 

A  careful  perusal  will,  we  believe,  lead  to  many  profitable 
investments  and  point  the  way  for  the  establishment  of  many 
prosperous  homes  in  this  part  of  Wyoming. 

Among  the  most  prominent  industries  are  the  following : 

Three  large  automobile  garages, 

The  largest  plant  on  the  line  of  the  Union  Pacific  rail- 
way for  cutting  and  storing  ice  and  icing  refriger- 
ator cars, 

Stock  yards,  where  over  ten  thousand  cars  of  stock 
are  fed  each  year, 

Two  plaster  mills, 

Planing  mills, 

Tie  preserving  plant, 

Packing  plant, 

Two  greenhouses, 

Three  livery  stables. 

Tannery, 

Electric  light  and  heating  plant,  fully  equipped  to 
furnish  power  to  manufacturers  seeking  locations, 

Flour  mill  and  elevator, 

Creamery, 

Two  daily  and  weekly  newspapers, 

Steam  laundry. 

Educational  Advantages. 

In  the  present  stage  of  our  civilization,  a  matter  of  much 
importance  to  the  man  who  is  building  a  permanent  home  is 
easy  access  to  both  common  schools  and  institutions  of  higher 
education.  In  seeking  a  location,  then,  the  possibility  of  get- 
ting near  the  seat  of  the  State  University,  is  a  matter  of 
weight  to  thinking  men.  This  is  a  real  advantage  to  the 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  25 

man  or  family  seeking  a  farm  or  ranch  in  Albany  County. 
Laramie  is  the  seat  of  the  State  University,  with  its  several 
colleges,  where  studies  suitable  to  the  individual  taste 
of  the  student  may  be  selected.  While  this  is  a  public  institu- 
tion, belonging  to  the  state  at  large,  there  can  be  no  question 
about  the  favorable  influence  it  produces  in  the  community, 
and  many  will  choose  living  in  town  or  country  near  this  in- 
fluence if  they  find  there  other  advantages  which  insure  their 
general  prosperity. 

Education  is  becoming  so  practical,  and  is  proving  such  an 
essential  to  the  greatest  success  of  the  individual,  that  every 
intelligent  man  is  coming  to  a  realization  of  the  value  to  him 
of  getting  all  the  learning  possible  for  himself,  as  well  as 
providing  every  opportunity  for  his  children. 

Not  only  does  the  University  supply  opportunity  for 
rounding  out  and  finishing  the  education  of  the  young  people 
in  its  classical,  literary,  scientific  and  technical  colleges,  but 
here  also  is  the  Agricultural  College  and  the  Government  Ag- 
ricultural Experiment  Station,  with  long  and  short  courses  for 
instruction  for  young  people  who  devote  all  their  time  to  ac- 
quiring information,  and  for  older  people  as  well,  who  are  too 
busy  with  the  affairs  of  life  to  more  than  keep  up  with  the 
progress  of  the  times.  In  the  short  courses  farmers  and 
stockmen  can  in  one  or  two  weeks  get  hold  of  the  latest  infor- 
mation which  can  be  made  of  practical  use  in  their  business 
affairs.  • 

The  Wyoming  Experiment  Station,  supported  by  federal 
appropriations,  is  for  research  in  agriculture.  When  it  was  es- 
tablished twenty-two  years  ago  agriculture  was  very  new  in 
Wyoming.  The  arid  region  and  irrigation  farming  were  then 
only  beginning  to  be  developed,  and  it  may  be  truthfully  said 
that  the  success  of  cropping  under  correct  methods  of  farm 


Experiment    Station    Stock   Farm,   Laramie. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  27 

practice  as  demonstrated  by  the  Station  has  been  no  less  than 
a  revelation  to  all  who  have  learned  of  it.  Without  knowing 
anything  about  the  facts  in  the  case,  there  has  been  a  prejudice 
in  the  minds  of  many  against  attempts  to  develop  crop  farming 
in  Wyoming.  This  has  been  due  to  two  general  misconcep- 
tions. First  and  foremost,  there  were  the  personal  interests  at 
stake  of  the  few  large  stockmen  who  were  waxing  rich 
through  the  occupation  of  vast  sections  of  free  range.  These 
men  were  jealous  of  encroachment  by  settlers  who  began  to 
develop  smaller  ranches,  and  felt  it  to  their  interest 
to  put  everything  in  the  way  of  settlement  and  development 
which  they  legitimately  could.  Before  them  the  Indian 
tried  to  prevent  the  white  men  from  making  use  of  his  game 
country,  because  it  interfered  with  his  method  of  living.  This 
condition  has  passed,  and  our  best  men  now  realize  the  value 
to  the  state  of  settlement  and  the  development  of  our  rich  ag- 
ricultural resources. 

The  second  cause  of  slow  development,  which  may  be 
slightly  dependent  upon  the  first,  was  a  prejudice  against  the 
general  appearance  of  the  country,  due  to  lack  of  information 
or  intelligent  foresight  in  regard  to  its  possibilities.  The  arid 
region — the  short-grass  country — all  appeared  so  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  conditions  in  the  humid  east  that-  the  first  settlers 
could  see  no  future  for  the  country  except  one  of  general  deso- 
lation and  abandonment.  True,  there  were  very  Small  sec- 
tions of  the  arid  region  in  Utah,  California  and  Colorado  where 
the  first  irrigation  development  was  proving  the  success  and 
superiority  of  irrigated  agriculture,  but  it  took  actual  demon- 
stration arid  ocular  proof  in  Wyoming,  especially  at  our  higher 
altitudes,  to  convince  the  people  that  here  was  a  rich  oppor- 
tunity for  the  agriculturist.  That  live  stock  would  thrive  on 
the  rich  grasses  of  the  range  and  fatten  on  the  native  hay  pro- 
duced by  irrigation  of  the  river  bottoms  was  known.  The  Ex- 
periment Station  and  those  ranchmen  who  have  attempted 
cropping  have  obtained  absolute  proof  of  remunerative  farm- 
ing, and  this  pamphlet  will  contain  nothing  but  authentic  data 
of  such  resources. 

Twenty-two  Years'  Data. 

The  Experiment  Station  has  been  demonstrating  many 
farm  problems ;  is  now  and  will  continue  to  study  every  agri- 
cultural question  and  freely  supply  the  information  to  those 
who  will  make  practical  use  of  it.  Its  advantage  to  those  who 
are  raising  stock  or  crops  can  only  be  appreciated  by  coming 
into  contact  with  it  or  studying  the  publications  which  report 
the  results  of  investigations. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  29 

Climate  and  Weather. 

The  health  and  happiness  of  a  people,  as  well  as  their  suc- 
cess in  agriculture,  is  so  closely  related  to  the  climate  and 
weather  of  a  region,  that  we  make  a  brief  summary  of  Albany 
County  weather  phenomena.  At  the  University  complete  me- 
teorological records  have  been  kept  since  1901.  These  include 
records  of  temperature  of  the  air  and  soil,  relative  humidity, 
dew  point,  precipitation,  wind  movement,  barometric  pressure, 
evaporation,  etc.  Along  with  this  record  are  data  of  frosts, 
time  of  planting  and  harvest,  and  those  crop  and  plant  studies 
which,  taken  together,  give  a  good  summary  of  climate  condi- 
tions. In  general  the  climate  is  characterized  by  great  dry- 
ness  of  the  atmosphere,  with  a  consequent  large  percentage  of 
sunshine,  cool  nights,  and  never  excessive  heat  during  the  day, 
while,  contrary  to  what  would  be  expected,  the  minimum  tem- 
peratures at  Laramie  have  not  been  so  low  as  those  either 
north  or  south  of  us.  There  is  a  large  amount  of  air  move- 
ment, but  because  of  the  high  altitude  and  lightness  of  the 
atmosphere,  there  is  seldom  any  damage  resulting  from  wind, 
while  the  cool  air  is  always  kept  pure  and  filled  with  elec- 
tricity and  ozone,  which  give  it  a  snap  at  once  energizing  and 
delightful.  The  largest  amount  of  rainfall  comes  in  the  spring 
and  summer,  when  it  is  most  useful  to  the  farmer,  and  the  falls 
and  winters  are  so  dry  and  open  that  bicycles  and  automobiles 
are  used  the  year  around.  Seldom  during  the  twenty-two 
years  for  which  we  have  records  has  the  maximum  tempera- 
ture, even  for  a  single  day,  during  the  summer,  reached  90  de- 
grees. The  minimum  temperature  during  that  time  has  been 
as  low  as  42  degrees  below  zero,  which  occurred  in  February 
of  1905,  but  as  will  be  noticed  in  the  table  of  maximum  and 
minimum  temperatures,  the  thermometer  has  seldom  reached 
minus  30  degrees,  and  these  cold  spells  seldom  last  more  than 
a  single  day.  The  principal  characteristic  of  the  weather  in 
the  nature  of  single  storms  consists  of  an  occasional  heavy 
wind  during  the  winter  and  spring  months,  sometimes  accom- 
panied by  snow.  Such  storms  never  last  more  than  two  or 
three  days  and  the  stock  losses  even'  on  the  open  range,  since 
we  have  begun  to  observe  the  weather,  have  been  very  slight. 
There  is  an  occasional  heavy  dashing  rain  sometimes  accom- 
panied by  fine  hail,  but  only  two  seasons  in  fifteen  has  any 
damage  occurred  to  crops  by  hail  storms.  Late  frosts  can  be 
expected  in  the  spring  until  the  first  of  June  and  killing  frosts 
in  the  fall  can  usually  be  expected  the  first  week  in  September. 
On  this  account,  and  because  of  the  cool  nights,  corn  and 
vines  cannot  be  successfully  produced,  but  any  of  the  more 
hardy  crops,  which  will  stand  a  degree  of  frost  in  the  spring, 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  31 

such  as  grains,  root  crops,  flax,  buckwheat,  alfalfa,  etc.,  are 
very  successful.  All  the  grass  crops  and  grains  reach  great 
perfection,  producing  large  yields  of  the  very  best  quality. 
High  up  in  the  mountains  the  precipitation  is  greater,  and 
on  the  range  and  in  the  forests  the  snow  is  stored  for  summer 
irrigation.  It  seems  that  all  the  factors  of  climate  tend  to 
produce  quick  growth  and  most  nutritious  stock  foods.  Chem- 
ical analyses  of  our  forage  plants  indicate  that  they  are  unusu- 
ally rich  in  protein,  and  digestion  trials  have  shown  them  to 
be  highly  digestible.  (See  Wyoming  Experiment  Station  bul- 
letins on  Chemical  Composition  and  Digestibility  of  High  Al- 
titude Forage.)  The  cool  weather  is  also  favorable  to  the  lay- 
ing on  of  fat  and  our  hay-fed  cattle  are  often  sold  on  the  mar- 
ket as  corn-fed  beef.  The  springs  are  very  short  and  as  that  is 
the  rainy  season  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  get  plowing  done 
and  crops  in  sufficiently  early.  It  is,  therefore,  necessary  to 
fall  plow  and  adopt  other  methods  of  farm  practice  suitable  to 
the  soil  and  climate.  Herewith  are  published  two  tables  which 
give  the  main  factors  of  climate  in  our  temperature  arid  pre- 
cipitation. It  will  be  noticed  that  the  mean  monthly  precipita- 
tion curve  is  identical  with  the  needs  of  the  growing  season. 
The  distribution  of  the  precipitation  could  not  be  better  for 
the  agriculturist: 


Postoffice  Building:. 


32  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


Masonic    Temple. 


Albany    County    Court    House. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  -33 


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RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  35 


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RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  37 

Building  Material. 

A  most  important  consideration  to  settlers  in  parts  of  the 
arid  region  is  that  of  obtaining  suitable  building  material  for 
farm  buildings  and  fences  either  free  or  at  a  low  cost.  The 
conditions  in  Albany  County  are  more  favorable  in  this  regard 
than  in  many  parts  of  the  west,  and  the  laws  governing  forest 
reserves  and  state  lands  favor  the  actual  settler  in  a  way  which 
makes  it  possible  for  him  to  obtain  free  timber  for  his  own  use. 

One  of  the  largest  bodies  of  growing  timber  in  the  state  is 
that  of  the  Medicine  Bow  Forest  Reserve,  in  southern  Albany 
County.  This  is  directly  tributary  to  the  Laramie  Plains  area, 
and  settlers  are  given  free  permits  to  cut  timber  for  building 
purposes  or  for  mining,  and  to  remove  dead  or  down  timber 
for  wood,  fencing  or  other  use.  The  Wyoming  law  allows  set- 
tlers on  public  lands  who  have  insufficient  supply  of  timber  on 
their  own  claims  to  cut  timber  on  lands  owned  or  controlled  by 
the  state,  for  their  own  use,  but  not  for  sale  or  to  be  otherwise 
disposed  of.  Most  of  the  ranchmen  in  Albany  County  con- 
struct their  buildings  from  logs  which  they  obtain  free  from 
forest  reserves  or  state  lands,  and  posts,  poles,  bridge  timbers, 
wood  and  timber  in  large  amounts  is  available  and  easily  ob- 
tained. In  the  mountains  west  of  Laramie  there  are  a  number 
of  sawmills  operating  under  permits  on  the  forestry  reserves 
which  supply  a  large  variety  of  building  material  to  the  Lara- 
mie market.  One  of  these  mills  manufactures  lumber  of  suffi- 
cient value  to  have  received  recognition  in  a  medal  granted  at 
the  Portland  Fair. 

Sandstone  and  limestone  are  abundant  and  easily  obtained 
along  the  base  of  the  Laramie  Hills,  and  a  granite  of  a  quality 
which  received  recognition  at  the  Chicago  Exposition  is  easily 
available.  In  the  vicinity  of  Laramie  are  two  piaster  mills 
which  are  manufacturing  plaster  and  stucco  cements  in  large 
quantities.  At  the  present  time  a  movement  is  inaugurated  to 
start  Portland  cement  factories  near  Laramie,  as  materials  for 
this  purpose  are  abundant.  Limestone  of  great  purity  is 
burned  at  Laramie  for  the  making  of  ordinary  plaster  and  the 
new  brick  plant  is  making  pressed  brick  of  such  quality  that  it 
is  shipped  as  far  as  Omaha  for  use  in  large  buildings. 

The  Medicine  Bow  National  Forest. 

The  Medicine  Bow  National  Forest  embraces  an  area  of 
eight  hundred  square  miles  in  the  region  tributary  to  Laramie. 
About  two-fifths  of  this  area  (300  square  miles)  is  in  Albany 
County.  The  forest  is  administered  by  the  federal  govern- 
ment, necessitating  the  employment  of  a  permanent  and  tem- 
porary force  varying  from  ten  to  one  hundred  men,  depending 


38  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 

on  the  time  of  year.    The  office  of  the  Forest  Supervisor  and 

his  immediate  assistants  is  in  the  federal  building  in  Laramie. 

The  resources  of  the  Medicine  Bow  National  Forest  are 

many.     It  supports  a  stand  of  timber  aggregating  about  two 


« ...  ,-f 


5#.j 


and  one-half  billion  board  feet,  valued  conservatively  at  six 
million  dollars,  from  which  an  excellent  quality  of  pine  lumber 
has  been  manufactured  for  the  past  forty  years,  affording 
building  material  at  low  prices  for  the  improvement  of  farms 
and  the  building  of  houses.  The  price  of  lumber  at  the  mills 
ranges  from  $12.00  to  $18.00  per  thousand  feet.  Railroad  tie 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  39 

and  lumber  operators  have  purchased  from  the  government 
and  sold  locally  millions  of  feet  of  timber,  the  production  of 
these  classes  of  material  forming  one  of  the  chief  industries  of 
the  region.  Ranchers  and  others  in  and  near  the  forest  obtain 
free  firewood,  building  and  fencing  materials  amounting  to 
nearly  a  million  board  feet  a  year. 

On  the  forest  there  is  range  for  8,700  head  of  cattle  and 
horses  and  80,000  head  of  sheep,  and  local  stockmen  utilize  this 
resource  under  permit  from  the  federal  government.  The 
prices  paid  at  the  stock  markets  for  livestock  shipped  from  this 
range  speak  for  themselves  in  declaring  the  value  of  the  forage. 

The  Gold  Hill,  Rambler,  Centennial  and  Keystone  mining 
districts  are  located  within  the  boundaries  of  this  forest,  and 
constitute  one  of  its  chief  resources.  Mining  and  prospecting 
are  carried  on  within  the  forest  under  the  same  laws  applying 
to  the  unreserved  public  domain. 

Streams  such  as  the  Little  Laramie  River,  and  many  oth- 
ers, whose  waters  form  the  basis  of  the  agricultural  develop- 
ment of  the  region,  have  their  heads  in  the  National  Forest, 
and  the  forests  protecting  their  watersheds  and  regulating  the 
streamflow  are  guaranteed  the  protection  of  the  government. 
There  are  thousands  of  undeveloped  electrical  horsepower  in 
these  same  streams. 

Not  the  least  of  the  resources  are  the  camping,  hunting 
and  fishing  opportunities.  Deer  abound  in  many  parts  of  the 
forest,  and  occasional  bear,  mountain  lions,  bobcats  and  small- 
er animals  attract  the  hunter.  Delightful  camping  places  are 
numerous  and  easy  of  access.  The  region  about  the  Snowy 
Range  is  particularly  attractive,  and  large  numbers  of  camp- 
ers visit  this  country  throughout  the  summer.  There  are 
summer  hotels  near  and  at  Centennial,  from  where  transporta- 
tion may  always  be  secured  by  wagon  and  horseback  to  the 
higher  points. 

The  fishing  in  the  Little  Laramie,  Big  Laramie,  Rock 
Creek,  Douglas  Creek,  and  other  nearby  streams  is  too  well 
known  and  appreciated  to  need  advertisement.  In  the  moun- 
tain lakes  about  the  Snowy  Range  there  is  excellent  sport,  par- 
ticularly in  Brooklyn  and  Towner  Lakes.  The  Forest  Service 
has  stocked  many  of  these  lakes  with  eastern  brook  trout,  and 
will  replenish  them  and  stock  others  each  year. 

The  Medicine  Bow  National  Forest  boasts  of  one  of  a 
very  few  completely  equipped  "seed-extracting  plants"  in  the 
United  States.  This  plant  has  been  erected  at  Foxpark  at  a 
cost  of  nearly  $10,000,  and  is  used  to  extract  the  seed  from  the 
lodgepole  pine  cones  to  be  used  in  reforesting  denuded 
forest  lands  throughout  the  region.  Each  year  the 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  41 

ranchers  and  others  living  in  or  near  the  forest  collect  and  sell 
to  the  Forest  Service  quantities  of  pine  cones.  An  inspection 
of  this  unique  plant  is  well  worth  a  trip  from  Laramie  over  the 
Laramie  Plains  railroad. 

The  Medicine  Bow  National  Forest  is  one  of  the  assets  of 
the  region.  It  is  administered  by  the  government  at  no  cost  to 
the  state  or  county,  and  each  year  25  per  cent  of  the  gross 
receipts  returns  to  the  counties  through  the  State  Treasurer 
to  be  expended  on  roads  and  schools.  In  the  fiscal  year  ended 
June  30,  1912,  Albany  County's  share  was  nearly  $5,000.  In 
addition  to  this,  there  is  another  10  per  cent  expended  on 
roads,  and  in  the  spring  of  1913  $1,800  will  be  spent  on  a  road 
across  the  range  from  Centennial  to  Tenmile,  which  will  form 
a  short  and  scenic  highway  from  Laramie  to  Saratoga. 

It  is  to  the  people  that  the  national  forests  are  most  valu- 
able. They  do  not  belong  to  the  government  officials  in  Wash- 
ington, nor  to  the  local -forest  service,  but  to  the  public,  and  it 
is  the  public  who  are  most  interested  in  their  perpetuation 
and  protection.  The  government  maintains  a  protective  force, 
and  spends  thousands  of  dollars  each  year  in  constructing 
roads,  trails,  telephone  lines,  and  other  protective  features. 
Without  the  full  co-operation  of  the  public,  however,  protec- 
tion must  fail,  and  the  disastrous  fires  in  the  northwest  in  1910 
showed  what  might  happen  to  the  valuable  forest  resources 
of  this  country.  The  government  welcomes  and  invites  the 
fullest  use  of  the  national  forests  for  development  and  recrea- 
tion purposes,  asking  cooperation  in  return,  and  the  observ- 
ance of  such  simple  rules'  as  the  following: 

1.  Be  sure  your  match  is  out  before  you  throw  it  away. 

2.  Knock  out  your  pipe  ashes  or  throw  your  cigar  or  cig- 
arette stump  where  there  is  nothing  to  catch  fire. 

3.  Don't  build  a  camp  fire  any  larger  than  is  absolutely 
necessary.     Never  leave  it  for  a  short  time  without  puting  it 
OUT  with  water  or  dirt. 

4.  Don't  build  a  camp  fire  against  a  tree  or  log.     Scrape 
away  the   needles,  grass,   or  anything  inflammable   from   all 
sides. 

5.  Don't  build  bonfires.    The  wind  may  come  up  at  any 
time  and  start  a  fire  you  cannot  control. 

6.  If  you  discover  a  fire,  put  it  out  if  possible;    if  you 
can't,  get  word  to  the  nearest  forest  ranger  or  state  fire  war- 
den as  quickly  as  you  can. 

7.  Leave  your  camp  in   a  sanitary  and  neat  condition 
when  you  leave.  Unburied  refuse  and  garbage  are  unsightly 
and  unsanitary,  and  may  spoil  the  camping  place  for  the  next 
party. 


42  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  43 

LIVE  STOCK. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  in  this  pamphlet  to  repeat  the  19/10 
statistics  of  the  number  of  head  of  different  classes  of  live 
stock  on  the  farms,  ranches  and  ranges  of  Albany  County. 
In  1912  our  live  stock  had  an  assessed  value  of  $1,461,204. 

Perhaps  no  county  has  made  greater  or  more  important 
advance  in  the  improvement  of  its  stock,  in  better  manage- 
ment, care  and  feeding,  and  certainly  none  has  won  more  hon- 
ors at  live  stock  shows  and  large  expositions.  Substantial  win- 
nings have  been  niade  at  the  International  Livestock  Exposi- 
tion at  Chicago  for  a  number  of  years  upon  both  sheep  and 
cattle ;  at  the  Alaska- Yukon  Exposition  at  Seattle  upon  sheep ; 
at  the  National  Western  Livestock  Show  at  Denver  upon  cat- 
tle and  sheep,  and  at  numerous  state  fairs  over  the  country 
upon  sheep. 

Range  men  are  adopting  better  methods  of  management, 
caring  for  their  stock  in  pastures  and  on  the  ranch,  using  cor- 
rals for  their  sheep  instead  of  leaving  them  in  the  open  with 
the  sheep  wagon,  and  raising  winter  feed  to  bring  their  flocks 
and  herds  through  the  few  winter  storms  in  better  condition 
than  on  the  open  range. 

Medals  and  prizes  have  been  won  from  time  to  time  upon 
range  wool  and  fleeces  in  competition  with  America. 

One  of  the  largest  horse  ranches  in  the  west  is  located  in 
northern  Albany  County,  and  there  are  several  associations  of 
ranchmen  who  have  purchased  imported  Belgian  sires  and 
others  who  own  good.  Percheron,  Shire  and  Coach  stallions. 


Hogs   in   Alfalfa,   Blackburn   Ranch. 


44 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  45 

A  few  are  now  raising  swine  which  are  found  highly  remunera- 
tive fed  on  home-grown  produce,  and  there  is  still  room  for 
considerable  development  in  the  swine  industry,  for  in  our 
high,  dry  climate  they  can  be  kept  free  from  disease  and  other 
troubles,  and  our  highly  nitrogenous  foods  produce  bacon  and 
other  products  of  first  quality.  Of  other  classes  of  stock  in  the 
county,  there  are  a  few  Angora  goats  and  a  few  years  ago  a 
man  in  the  mountains  west  of  Laramie  made  quite  a  success 
of  the  manufacture  of  cheese  from  goats'  milk. 

Stock  Feeding. 

Heretofore  the  principal  feeding  done  has  been  the  win- 
ter fattening  of  cattle  on  native  hay.  Within  a  few  years, 
however,  a  number  of  ranchmen  have  taken  up  lamb  feeding 
with  alfalfa  hay  and  corn,  which  is  shipped  in,  and  more  re- 
cently with  field  peas,  after  the  method  followed  in  the  San 
Luis  Valley,  in  Colorado. 

Dairying  in  Albany  County. 

A  discussion  of  the  subject  of  dairying  and  its  possibili- 
ties on  the  Laramie  Plains  resolves  itself  at  once  into  a  con- 
sideration of  two  questions.  Is  the  business  profitable,  and  is 
it  practicable?  A  brief  study  of  the  industry,  keeping  those 
points  in  mind,  will  at  least  enable  us  to  judge  intelligently  as 
to  the  merits  of  the  business. 

That  the  dairy  cow  is  a  profitable  converter  of  farm  crops 
into  human  food  is  shown  by  a  table  taken  from  "Henry".  In 
it  is  given  the  amount  of  food,  suitable  for  man,  returned  by 
the  different  classes  of  farm  animals  for  100  pounds  of  digesti- 
ble matter  consumed : 

Marketable     Edible 
Product         Solids 

Animal  Ibs.  Ibs. 

Cow   (milk) T39-O  18.0 

Pig  (dressed) 25.0  i  $.6 

Calf  (dressed)   36.5  8.1 

Poultry   (eggs)    19.6  5.1 

Poultry  (dressed)   15.6  4.2 

Lamb  (dressed) 9.6  3.2 

Steers  (dressed) 8.3  2.8 

A  study  of  these  figures  gives  us  something  of  an  idea  of 
the  possibilities  of  the  dairy  cow  as  a  machine  for  changing 
hay  and  grain  into  human  food.  Give  her  100  pounds  of  di- 
gestible matter  and  she  will  return  to  you  eighteen  pounds  of 
edible  solids,  practically  all  of  which  are  digestible. 


46  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


Ice    Houses,    La  ramie    River. 


Union  Pacific  Railway  Company  Passenger  Station. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  47 

The  pig,  which  stands  second  on  the  list  of  food  producers, 
is  a  valuable  asset  to  the  dairy  farmer.  Pork  production  and 
dairying  go  hand  in  hand,  for  the  man  who  has  skim  milk  to 
be  utilized  needs  pigs  to  aid  him  in  disposing  of  it  to  the  best 
advantage.  Skim  milk  and  alfalfa  hay  will  winter  brood  sows, 
and  pea  pasture  is  extremely  valuable  in  fattening  rations. 

Thus  we  find  that  the  dairyman  may  have  what  we  might 
term  a  side-line  in  pigs,  fitting  in  well  with  his  scheme  of  dairy 
farming,  and  in  these  two  classes  of  stock  he  has  leading  food 
producers. 

From  the  standpoint  of  maintenance  and  building  up  of 
soil  fertility  the  dairy  cow  is  kept  at  a  profit.  In  marketing  a 
ton  of  butter  we  dispose  of  about  30  cents  in  fertility  value, 
while  a  ton  of  alfalfa  hay,  sold,  represents  approximately  $9.00 
in  fertilizing  materials  taken  from  our  soils.  Let  us  feed  our 
hay  to  milk  cows,  market  butter,  and  by  a  careful  application 
of  manure,  build  up  the  richness  of  our  soils. 

Markets  are  an  important  consideration  when  profits  are 
being  investigated.  Dairymen  of  the  Laramie  Plains  have 
good  market  facilities.  An  up-to-date  creamery  located  in  the 
City  of  Laramie  furnishes  an  outlet  for  both  milk  and  cream. 
Prices  range  high  enough  to  make  the  business,  properly  con- 
ducted, remunerative.  Mr.  Sterzbach,  manager  of  the  cream- 
ery company,  estimates  that  an  average  of  $1.90  per  hundred 
pounds  is  paid  for  whole  milk.  He  figures  that  at  least  40,000 
pounds  more  butter  is  needed  to  supply  the  local  trade,  and 
states  further  that  there  is  much  contingent  territory  orders 
which  could  be  filled  from  Laramie  were  the  dairy  products 
available.  With  all  local  demands  filled  there  would  still  be 
the  eastern  and  western  markets,  and  Elgin  prices  could  be 
depended  upon  throughout  the  year. 

Transportation  charges  on  cream  shipped  into  Laramie 
by  express  are  not  excessive.  An  average  of  twenty-five  cents 
would  cover  the  cost  of  sending  in  a  ten  gallon  can  of  cream 
from  near-by  points.  Empty  cans  are  returned  free. 

In  the  matter  of  shipping  dairy  products  to  distant  points 
the  dairyman  works  at  an  advantage.  He  ships  a  highly  con- 
centrated product  on  which  the  carrying  charges  are  bound  to 
be  less  proportionately  than  they  would  be  were  he  to  send 
hay,  grain  or  live  stock. 

Delivering  milk  or  cream  at  the  creamery  means  a  long 
haul  from  some  parts  of  the  Laramie  Plains.  Yet  this  diffi- 
culty can  be  largely  overcome  through  co-operation.  One 
team  can  easily  do  the  delivering  for  a  neighborhood. 

Settlers  in  this  section  who  enter  the  dairy  business  find 
land  values  much  less  than  they  are  in  most  of  the  older 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  49 

states.  This  means  less  fixed  capital  upon  which  interest  must 
be  figured.  Yet  our  lands  are  productive.  The  1911  Year  Book 
of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  gives  the  average  yield  of 
corn  in  the  United  States  as  23.9  bushels  per  acre;  oats,  24.4; 
barley,  21.0  bushels.  Corn  may  be  beyond  us,  but  our  irrigated 
sections  will  certainly  show  improved  yields  of  oats  and  barley. 
Barley  is  coming  to  be  recognized  as  a  wonderfully  good  corn 
substitute. 

Wherever  the  dairy  industry  has  gained  a  foothold  we  find 
a  prosperous  community.  With  increased  land  values  the 
tendency  is  toward  dairying.  Why?  Because  as  has  been  pre- 
viously indicated,  the  dairy  cow  heads  our  list  of  domesticated 
animals  in  her  ability  to  convert  field  crops  into  human  food. 
Hence  the  man  with  high  priced  land  turns  to  her  for  aid  in 
financing  his  big  investments. 

Star  Valley,  a  section  of  our  state  with  climatic  conditions 
much  like  those  of  the  Laramie  Plains,  is  today  demonstrating 
the  possibilities  of  the  dairy  business.  Settlers  in  the  valley 
were  having  difficulty  in  making  both  ends  meet,  until  they 
began  to  keep  milk  cows.  Today  one  finds  evidences  of  pros- 
perity on  all  sides  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  valley  is  fifty 
miles  from  a  railroad  and  cut  off  from  it  by  a  mountain  range. 
Most  of  the  cattle  are  not  of  the  highest  type,  yet  herd  improve- 
ment is  under  way. 

What  of  the  practicability  of  dairying  for  the.  Laramie 
Plains?  That  it 'is  a  workable  proposition,  those  who  have 
studied  the  question  will  testify.  Climatic  conditions  are  not 
unfavorable.  We  can  grow  all  the  necessary  feeds.  With 
alfalfa,  field  peas,  roots,  oats,  barley  and  rye  at  our  disposal, 
what  more  do  we  need?  Silos  are  no  remote  possibility,  for 
alfalfa,  field  peas,  oats,  etc.,  make  silage  material.  Market 
facilities  are  good  with  both  local  and  distant  field  inade- 
quately supplied. 

In  short,  we  have  the  requisites  necessary  for  successful 
dairying.  It  remains  with  us  to  make  the  most  of  our  opportu- 
nities. 

Why  has  an  industry  both  profitable  and  practicable  been 
so  woefully  neglected?  In  the  first  place,  we  object  to  the 
work  connected  with  the  dairy  business.  That  it  is  confining 
no  one  will  deny.  Milking  twice  a  day,  week  in  and  week  out, 
grows  irksome.  What  business  is  without  its  drawbacks  and 
what  success  worthy  of  the  name  is  attained  without  effort  and 
sacrifice? 

Many  of  us  have  lacked  in  appreciation  of  the  dairy  cow 
as  well  as  in  knowledge  of  the  subject  and  so  have  hesitated  to 
embark  in  the  enterprise.  Your  state  university,  good  dairy 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  51 

papers  and  a  wealth  of  dairy  literature  are  all  at  the  disposal  of 
those  interested. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  give  you  a  glimpse  of  our  possi- 
bilities. An  intelligent  utilization  of  our  advantages  and 
hearty  co-operation  in  the  development  of  the  dairy  industry 
will  do  much  toward  adding  to  the  prosperity  of  our  valleys. 

CROPPING  RESOURCES. 
Forage  Plants. 

Several  of  the  older  writers  on  alfalfa  made  statements 
that  it  would  thrive  at  any  altitude  below  6,000  feet.  On  the 
Experiment  Station  farm  at  Laramie  we  early  demonstrated 
that  the  conditions  were  favorable  to  the  production  of  alfalfa 
at  altitudes  of  over  7,000  feet,  and  now  there  are  some  exten- 
sive fields  along  the  rivers  and  under  the  irrigating  canals. 
Where  the  conditions  are  favorable  for  its  growth,  alfalfa  is 
pronounced,  without  reserve,  the  most  valuable  fodder  plant 
under  cultivation  for  the  arid  region.  It  is  so  highly  esteemed 
in  other  places  that  eastern  farmers  are  overcoming  the  diffi- 
culty of  growing  it  under  humid  conditions,  and  it  is  becoming 
an  important  crop  in  almost  every  state.  Its  points  of 
advantage  over  other  hay  crops  are :  First,  its  large  yield  per 
acre,  returning  two  to  three  times  the  amount  secured  from 
native  hay;  second,  its  hardiness  and  permanence  after  get- 
ting started,  standing  drouth  well  and  giving  maximum  crops 
until  at  least  seven  or  eight  years  old ;  third,  its  high  nutritive 
value,  any  kind  of  stock  making  flesh  and  fat  upon  it,  and 
fourth,  its  fertilizing  value,  for  instead  of  impoverishing  the 
soil,  it  enriches  it  by  fixing  free  nitrogen  from  the  air,  leaving  it 
in  fine  condition  for  other  crops.  While  alfalfa  is  one  of  the 
easiest  plants  to  grow,  it  requires  methods  of  culture  which 
are  suitable  at  our  high  altitudes.  The  first  farmers  who  tried 
alfalfa  in  Albany  County  did  not  succeed,  but  since  adopting 
the  press  drill  with  which  to  plant  the  seed  and  putting  it  on 
good  soil,  where  water  does  not  stand  too  near  the  surface,  we 
have  never  failed  to  secure  a  good  stand.  Full  instructions  for 
sowing  alfalfa,  its  management,  and  curing  the  hay,  may  be 
obtained  by  addressing  the  Director  of  the  Experiment  Sta- 
tion. As  an  indication  of  the  cropping  qualities  of  alfalfa  on 
the  Laramie  Plains,  we  quote  the  data  of  yields  on  the  Station 
farm  which  were  published  in  Wyoming  Station  Bulletin  No. 
43.  The  report  is  given  for  separate  fields.  Acre  Plat  8  was 
planted  to  alfalfa  in  the  spring  of  1894,  producing  a  crop  the 
first  year  from  seed  of  1,967  pounds  of  cured  hay.  The  second 
year,  1895,  it  was  harvested  August  6,  giving  5,019  pounds,  and 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  53 

the  second  crop,  September  24,  2,557  pounds,  making  the  total 
yield  a  little  more  than  three  and  one-half  tons  per  acre.  In 
1896  only  a  partial  crop  was  secured,  but  it  was  cut  July  7  and 
September  8,  yielding  2.34  tons.  In  1897  the  first  crop,  cut 
July  16,  yielded  3,860  pounds,  and  the  second  crop,  September 
9,  yielded  3,860  pounds,  or  approximately  3.86  tons  for  the 
season.  In  1898  it  was  cut  first  July  14,  yielding  4,759  pounds, 
and  the  second  time  September  8,  yielding  3,909  pounds,  a  total 
of  4.33  tons.  The  average  for  four  years  is  a  little  more  than 
3%  tons  per  acre.  On  Acre  Plat  18,  which  is  a  very  shallow 
piece  of  land  underlaid  with  gypsum,  the  yield  for  three  years 
was  from  1.8  to  3.5  tons,  the  average  being  2.47.  Acre  Piat  27 
gave  an  average  yield  per  season  of  3%  tons  per  acre.  Turk- 
estan alfalfa,  the  seed  of  which  was  supplied  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  gave  average  yields  of  3.81  tons  cured 
hay  per  acre.  At  our  high  altitudes  the  alfalfa  produces  very 
fine  leafy  stems,  and  recent  studies  of  its  chemical  composi- 
tion and  digestion  experiments  show  that  it  is  richer  in 
protein  and  more  highly  digestible  than  the  stemmy  hay  pro- 
duced at  lower  altitudes,  as  reported  by  other  investigators. 
Fourteen  experiments  to  determine  the  duty  of  water  on  al- 
falfa showed  that  it  was  supplied  with  sufficient  irrigation 
water  if  the  land  was  covered  from  0.98  foot  to  3.1  feet  deep, 
making  the  duty  of  a  cubic  foot  per  second  continuous  flow  of 
an  irrigation  season  of  four  months  of  from  78.5  acres  to  249 
acres. 

The  great  fertilizing  value  of  alfalfa  is  shown  by  a  care- 
ful experiment  carried  out  by  the  Station  and  reported  in  Bul- 
letin No.  44.  The  fixation  of  nitrogen  by  alfalfa  overcomes  the 
principal  difficulty  with  arid  soils,  and  a  rotation  of  crops  in 
which  alfalfa  is  one  practically  solves  the  fertilizer  problem 
over  a  large  part  of  the  west. 

Where  alfalfa  is  used  in  rotation  with  other  crops  the  tex- 
ture and  richness  of  the  soil  is  improved  and  the  land  is  kept 
highly  productive,  providing,  of  course,  it  is  not  poor  in  min- 
eral plant  foods,  which  are  usually  abundant.  A  good  rotation 
for  Albany  County  is,  beginning  with  the  virgin  soil :  First 
year,  oats;  second  year,  potatoes,  with  a  small  amount  of 
stable  manure  if  it  is  available;  third  year,  alfalfa,  sown  on 
the  potato  ground  without  replowing,  having  it  harrowed  and 
leveled.  The  alfalfa  may  be  left  on  the  land  three,  five  or  eight 
years,  and  then  plowed  up  for  wheat,  oats,  barley  or  potatoes, 
putting  it  in  these  crops  two  or  more  years. 

Pure  farming  for  hay  alone  is  remunerative,  for  there  is 
always  good  demand;  with  the  introduction  of  lamb  feeding 
and  more  up-to-date  management  of  other  stock,  the  demand 


54 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


is  increasing.    Alfalfa  brings  from  $6  to  $14  per  ton,  which  in- 
sures good  returns  for  our  lands,  and  if  rotation  is  practiced,  it 


g 


s* 


|T 

O  OJ 


•38 


e|  I 


is  probably  a  fair  estimate  to  place  the  value  of  the  fertilizer 
added  to  the  soil  at  from  $30  to  $35  per  acre.    The  following 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  55 

is  a  summary  of  our  results  with  an  experiment  to  determine 
the  fertilizing  value  of  alfalfa. 

At  our  high  altitude  the  true  grasses  find  a  natural  home, 
and  there  are  few  areas  in  other  parts  of  the  west  which  are  so 
well  grassed  with  native  species,  or  which  produce  range  and 
pasture  equal  to  ours. 

No  class  of  forage  is  becoming  more  important  than  the 
Canadian  Field  Pea.  The  method  of  using  it  is  to  allow  the 
crop  to  ripen  in  the  field  and  fatten  lambs  by  allowing  them  to 
run  within  hurdle  fences  or  by  herding  them  on  the  fields. 
They  get  both  the  grain  and  roughage,  which  will  finish  them 
for  market  in  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  days,  producing  a  su^ 
perior  class  of  mutton.  From  eight  to  twelve  lambs  can  be 
fed  upon  an  acre.  The  fertility  of  the  soil  is  continually  im- 
proved and  the  returns  per  acre  in  the  trials  which  have  been 
made  have  given  good  net  profit. 

Farm  Crops. 

The  small  grains  are  more  generally  grown  in  Albany 
County  than  any  other  crop.  Wheat,  oats,  barley,  and  rye  in 
our  congenial  soils  and  cold  climate  reach  great  perfection. 
Winter  rye  can  be  grown  either  with  or  without  irrigation  and 
in  rotation  with  alfalfa,  wheat,  barley  and  oats  produces  yields 
which  are  highly  remunerative. 

Wheat. 

There  is  always  a  good  market  for  the  wheat  which  is 
grown  in  the  county.  At  no  time  has  the  supply  been  equal 
to  the  Demand,  and  the  flouring  mill  in  Laramie  has  been  com- 
pelled to  ship  in  wheat  to  supplement  the  home-grown  pro- 
duct. 

The  average  yield  of  wheat  for  ten  years'  trials  upon  the 
Experiment  Farm  at  Laramie  was  25.5  bushels  per  acre. 
Yields  have  been  reported  as  high  as  eighty  bushels.  With 
the  better  kinds  of  wheat  and  proper  handling,  farmers  obtain  a 
yield  of  twenty  or  thirty  bushels  to  the  acre. 

Oats. 

Oats  have  been  more  largely  grown  than  any  other  crop. 
For  our  conditions,  oats  and  flax  are  the  best  crops  to  grow 
the  first  year  after  breaking  sod  land.  The  yields  obtained, 
the  quality  of  the  crop  and  the  length  of  straw  have  often  been 
a  matter  of  surprise  to  our  own  farmers.  Wliile  the  Experi- 
ment Station  has  investigated  the  oat  crop  by  growing  many 
varieties,  testing  nearly  all  the  sorts  known  and  trying  vari- 
ous amounts  of  seed,  etc.,  no  special  report  has  yet  been 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  57 

made  of  the  oat  experiments.  A  banner  crop  of  oats  was 
produced  during  the  season  of  1905  on  the  Millbrook  ranch. 
Mr.  E.  J.  Bell  gave  a  ranch  dinner,  which  was  attended  by 
United  States  senators,  the  high  officials  of  the  state  and 
county  and  of  the  Union  Pacific  railroad.  Not  one  of  these  men 
who  had  been  interested  in  farming  all  their  lives  ever  saw  such 
a  crop  of  oats  as  that  growing  on  seventy  acres  of  the  older 
cultivated  land.  The  oats  stood  higher  than  the  backs  of  the 
horses  and  were  very  thick  and  heavy.  A  section  of  the  field 
measured  and  harvested  to  determine  the  yield  gave  a  crop 
of  107  bushels  per  acre,  machine  measure.  Computed  from 
the  weight  of  the  crop  at  32  pounds  per  bushel,  the  yield  was  a 
fraction  more  than  137  bushels  per  acre. 

Oats  may  be  considered  a  sure  crop,  and  even  when  put 
in  too  late  to  ripen  the  grain,  the  oat  hay  cut  when  the  grain 
is  in  the  milk  is  a  valuable  feed,  especially  for  horses. 

Barley. 

At  the  great  Chicago  Exposition  in  1893  a  large  barley 
merchant  from  Liverpool  stated  that  if  he  could  obtain  such 
barley  as  the  samples  we  were  showing  there  from  our  Sta- 
tion farm,  he  would  give  50  cents  more  per  bushel  for  it  than 
any  barley  he  had  purchased.  He  thought  its  quality  unex- 
celled, and  the  white  color  due  to  our  bright  sunshine  and 
lack  of  discoloring  rains  made  it  especially  desirable  for 
brewing  the  pale  ale  so  popular  in  England.  We  have  always 
believed  that  we  could  grow  barley  on  an  extensive  scale  for 
export.  At  St.  Louis  in  1904  we  obtained  a  grand  prize  on  our 
grains  and  the  group  jury  recommended  it  especially  on  an 
exhibit  of  forty-four  varieties  of  barley  grown  at  Laramie. 
The  feeding  value  of  barley  has  been  demonstrated  by  lamb 
feeding  experiments,  which  have  shown  it  equal  to  or  better 
than  corn  for  finishing  for  market. 

tin  No.  71  of  the  Wyoming  Agricultural  Experiment  Sta- 
tion. We  have  grown  brewing  barley  weighing  56  pounds 
per  bushel,  the  standard  being  48  pounds^  and  samples 
of  hulless  feeding  barley  have  weighed  as  high  as  67  pounds 
per  bushel.  The  maximum  yields  of  varieties  in  1896,  which 
wrere  planted  in  small  areas,  was  a  little  more  than  77 
bushels  per  acre  for  the  Winter  six-rowed  and  the  Algerian  No. 
2.  The  next  year  the  largest  yield  was  58  bushels  by  Man- 
churian.  The  next  year  Kilma  barley  yielded  at  the  rate  of 
87Vo  bushels.  The  following  season  Scotch  barley  in  a  half- 
acre  plat  yielded  77.3  bushels  per  acre.  While  we  have  little 
computed  data  from  which  to  estimate  average  yields,  it  is 
probable  that,  under  ordinary  conditions  of  soil  and  cultivation, 


RESOURCES  OP  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  59 

brewing  barley  will  average  from  50  to  60  bushels  per  acre  and 
hulless  barley  from  20  to  30  bushels.  With  fertilizing  or  on 
alfalfa  land  these  yields  may  be  doubled. 

Potatoes. 

Potatoes  succeed  in  all  parts  of  Wyoming  and  form  one  of 
our  most  important  and  valuable  farm  crops.  They  seem 
capable  of  adapting  themselves  to  all  our  conditions  of  soil, 
climate  and  altitude.  Good  yields  have  been  obtained  in  places 
up  to  9,000  feet  above  the  sea,  and  even  where  light  frosts 
are  frequent  during  the  growing  season.  The  phenomenon  of 
sufficient  cold  to  produce  ice  along  a  stream  in  mountain 
valleys  and  still  leave  uninjured  as  tender  foliage  as  that  of 
potatoes  has  often  been  observed.  It  would  seem  that  the  ra- 
diation in  our'  clear  atmosphere  is  sufficient  to  cool  the  al- 
ready cold  water  below  the  freezing  point,  while  foliage  on 
higher  ground  is  protected  by  warm  layers  of  air  and  the  heat 
absorbed  during  the  day.  At  altitudes  above  7,000  feet  pota- 
toes often  produce  fair  crops  without  irrigation,  even  with  our 
limited  amount  of  rainfall.  We  have  never  recorded  the  gen- 
eral failure  of  a  crop.  The  Experiment  Station  has  carried 
out  extensive  investigations  with  potatoes  and  is  able  to  give 
authentic  information  about  this  crop.  Fifty  varieties  were  ex- 
perimented with  through  two  seasons,  and  the  average  of  so 
many  gives  reliable  data.  Potatoes  on  different  soils  gave 
yields  on  millet  stubble  to  99  sacks  per  acre ;  on  timothy  land, 
96  sacks ;  on  red  clover,  fall  plowed,  80  sacks ;  and  on  wheat 
stubble,  60  sacks.  Where  these  potatoes  were  fertilized  with  a 
thousand  pounds  of  bone  meal  per  acre  on  this  land,  the  seed 
having  been  treated  with  corrosive  sublimate  for  scab,  the 
yields  were  as  follows :  Alexandre  Prolific,  on  millet  ground, 
117  sacks;  timothy  ground,  107  sacks;  clover  ground,  126 
sacks;  wheat  ground,  112  sacks;  the  average  being  116  sacks 
for  this  variety.  Charles  Downing  gave  yields  of  from  94 
sacks  on  wheat  ground  to  132  sacks  on  the  millet  ground,  the 
average  being  117  sacks.  Koshkonong  yielded  from  85  sacks  to 
141  sacks,  the  largest  yield  in  this  case  being  on  timothy 
ground,  the  average  yield  being  117  sacks  per  acre.  Where 
different  crops  have  been  plowed  under,  the  average  yield  of 
50  varieties  in  1896,  at  Laramie,  was  94  sacks  per  acre. 

The  season  for  potatoes,  as  given  in  this  bulletin,  is: 
Time  of  planting,  May  10  to  June  I ;  time  of  harvest,  Septem- 
ber 20  to  October  20 ;  time  of  first  killing  frost,  September  I 
to  September  10.  The  quality  of  our  potatoes  attracts  gen- 
eral attention.  Anyone  who  has  tried  potatoes  which  are 
grown  at  our  high  altitude  with  proper  irrigation  always  testi- 


1 


i 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  61 

fies  to  their  splendid  cooking  qualities  and  agreeable  flavor. 
Never  have  enough  potatoes  been  grown  to  supply  the  de- 
mand, and  on  account  of  superior  quality  they  always  bring  the 
best  market  prices.  They  do  not  grow  so  large  as  at  lower 
altitudes  with  longer  season,  but  are  of  excellent  size  for 
cooking  purposes.  The  largest  potatoes  we  have  raised  of  any 
variety  in  the  experiments  above  cited  were  seven  to  ten 
pounds  for  twelve  tubers.  Four  varieties  weighed  ten  pounds 
or  a  little  better  for  twelve  potatoes,  but  the  average  size  of 
the  largest  tubers  have  weighed  from  one-half  to  three-fourths 
of  a  pound. 

Other  Field  Crops. 

Flax  has  succeeded  admirably  in  Albany  County,  giving 
maximum  yields  of  about  sixteen  bushels  per  acre.  This  is 
considered  a  good  yield,  of  this  crop.  In  feeding  experiments 
has  been  shown  the  value  of  ground  flaxseed  for  fattening  in 
connection  with  alfalfa  and  root  crops. 

Buckwheat  produces  well  and  is  a  shor|t-season  crop 
which  will  fit  into  our  agriculture  when  we  have  mills  to  pro- 
duce the  meal. 

Turnips. 

Turnips  as  a  field  crop  are  not  sufficiently  appreciated. 
The  conditions  of  soil  and  climate  are  eminently  favorable  to 
the  growth  of  turnips.  At  lower  altitudes,  where  the  seasons 
•are  long  and  warm,  turnips  cannot  be  sown  in  the  spring  for  a 
fall  crop,  as  they  become  strong  and  unfit  for  either  table  use 
or  stock.  There  is  no  difficulty  of  this  kind  here,  for,  though 
the  roots  grow  to  a  large  size,  they  never  become  strong. 
Turnips  are  highly  prized  in  England  as  a  stock  feed,  to  be  fed 
with  hay  or  grain  for  fattening  beef.  Here,  where  there  is  so 
little  feed  of  a  succulent  nature,  turnips  for  stock  would  be 
invaluable,  and  well  repay  the  expense  of  growing  for  that 
purpose.  No  other  crop  that  we  have  tried  will  give  so  many 
pounds  of  feed  per  acre.  The  average  yield  of  twelve  varieties, 
sown  with  drill,  was  60,578.8  pounds,  or  30.3  tons  per  acre. 
The  expense  of  raising  them  is  small.  A  safe  estimtae  with  the 
yields  we  obtained  would  make  the  expense  of  producing  the 
turnips,  exclusive  of  harvesting  and  hauling,  at  50  cents  per 
ton,  or  less.  This  would  be  cheaper  than  hay,  and  much 
cheaper  than  any  other  stock  feed  which  can  be  obtained  here. 
While  the  nutritive  value  of  turnips  is  low,  they  will  be  found 
a  valuable  feed  in  connection  with  hay  or  grain. 

Rutabagas  or  Swede  turnips  can  be  grown  with  the  same 
success,  and  are  more  valuable  as  feed  than  the  white  varieties. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  63 

Vegetables. 

Practically  all  garden  vegetables  do  exceedingly  well  in 
Albany  County.  The  flavor  is  unexcelled. 

Parsnips,  carrots,  salsify,  beets,  onions,  radishes,  cabbage, 
kohl  rabi,  cauliflower,  lettuce,  garden  peas,  beans,  etc.,  pro- 
duce abundantly  and  the  quality  is  of  the  first  grade. 

Fruits. 

On  the  open  plains,  without  wind  breaks  or  other  protec- 
tion, tree  fruits  cannot  be  grown,  but  in  the  sheltered  valleys, 
along  the  streams  or  in  town  hardy  varieties  of  apples  and 
crabs  succeed,  and  Morello  cherries  are  being  produced  by 
Mr.  Jacob  Lund.  Mr.  Lund's  ranch  is  on  the  Laramie  River, 
28  miles  west  of  Laramie,  at  an  altitude  of  approximately 
7,400  feet.  His  orchard  of  Wealthy  apples  and  cherries  bear 
fruit  every  year.  Several  people  in  town  have  raised  apples 
and  good  crops  of  crab  apples.  On  the  Sibylee,  notheast  of 
Laramie,  Mr.  Edwin  Moore  has  a  fine  apple  orchard.  He 
showed  a  number  of  varieties  at  the  fairs  last  fall  and  took  the 
prize  at  the  State  Fair  at  Douglas  for  the  best  display  of  crab 
apples  from  any  county. 

The  small  fruits  which  succeed  are  strawberries,  currants 
and  gooseberries,  which  will  live  and  bear  without  being  given 
winter  protection.  Raspberries  and  dewberries  will  produce  if 
the  canes  are  laid  down  and  covered  with  earth  for  winter  pro- 
tection, as  is  practiced  in  Colorado  and  other  parts  of  the  arid 
region. 


One  of  the  Sources  of  Supply  of  Rock  Creek  Conservation  Company. 


64  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


St.   Matthew's    Cathedral. 


Presbyterian  Church. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  65 

GENERAL  GEOLOGY  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY. 

To  be  brief,  Albany  County  may  be  described  as  a  broad 
basin  forming  the  Laramie  Plains,  bounded  on  the  eastern  side 
by  the  Laramie  Hills  uplift  and  on  the  western  side  by  the 
uplifts  of  the  Medicine  Bow  range  of  mountains.  The  longer 
axes  of  both  of  these  mountain  ranges  and  the  trough  of  this 
great  basin  or  sinclinal  fold  is  from  southeast  to  northwest,  in 
common  with  the  general  direction  of  the  entire  Rocky  Moun- 
tain chain. 

On  the  easterly  side  of  this  grand  valley  or  basin  is  a 
range  of  mountains  known  as  the  Laramie  Hills,  or  Laramie 
Mountains,  sometimes  called  the  "Black  Hills"  in  the  early 
writings  concerning  this  locality.  This  chain  of  mountains 
lies  east  of  the  main  line  of  ranges  which  form  the  great 
Rocky  Mountain  Chain  of  North  America  and  extends  from  a 
point  near  the  Colorado-Wyoming  state  line  in  a  general  direc- 
tion west  of  north  along  the  Albany-Laramie  County  line  to  a 
point  in  the  northeastern  corner  of  Albany  County  at  Laramie 
Peak,  whence  this  range  turns  north  of  west  and  again  passes 
into  the  high  table  lands  and  smaller  hills  of  central  Wyoming, 
Laramie  Peak  being  the  highest  and  turning  point  of  this  entire 
uplift,  having  an  altitude  of  11,000  feet;  trie  general  altitude 
of  the  range  varies  from  7,000  feet  to  9,000  feet  above  sea  level. 

The  Laramie  Range  consists  essentially  of  a- huge  core  of 
archean  granites  extending  throughout  the  entire  length  of  the 
range  and  flanked  on  either  side  by  the  later  sedimentary  for- 
mations which  slope  at  a  varying  angle  away  from  the  main 
central  uplift,  showing  the  Cambrian  shales  and  Carboniferous 
limestones  immediately  overlying  the  granite.  These  are  suc- 
ceeded by  the  red  beds  of  the  Triassic,  the  clays,  limestones 
and  marls  of  the  Jurassic,  and  the  sandstones,  clays  and  shales 
of  the  Cretaceous  to  the  Tertiary  clays  and  other  later  forma- 
tions occuring  north  of  the  range  in  the  main  Platte  Valley. 
These  latter,  however,  will  not  be  discussed  in  this  paper,  as 
the  Laramie  Plains  consists  essentially  of  the  upper  Cretaceous 
formations,  and  the  only  Tertiary  deposits  are  small  isolated 
islands  occurring  near  the  northern  limits  of  this  county  and 
are  not  important. 

These  formations  and  their  general  relation  to  the  moun- 
tains on  which  they  lie  are  shown  in  the  accompanying  sec- 
tion, by  the  late  Prof.  W.  C.  Knight  of  the  University  of  Wyo- 
ming, across  the  Laramie  Basin,  but  at  different  points  in  the 
Laramie  Plains  region  in  eastern  Carbon  County  and  western 
Albany  County  there  are  a  number  of  smaller  uplifts,  where 
the  underlying  formations  have  been  brought  to  the  surface 
in  a  limited  area,  causing  a  local  change  of  dip  of  these  forma- 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


n    X 

rl 


t^ 

8  § 

II 


tions.     Where  these  are  commercially  important  they  will  be 
discussed  later  in  this  paper. 

The  Medicine  Bow  Mountains,  on  the  western  side  of  the 
basin  and  in  the  southwestern  corner  of  the  county,  are  the  re- 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  69 

suit  of  a  series  of  uplifts  occuring  at  various  times  along  the 
length  of  the  range,  the  main  uplift  forming  the  present  back- 
bone or  crest  of  these  mountains,  and  extends  in  a  northwest- 
erly and  southeasterly  direction. 

In  connection  with  this  main  range  are  a  number  of  smaller 
and  evidently  later  uplifts  known  as  Jelm  Mountain  and  Sheep 
Mountain  on  the  south  and  Cooper  Hill  and  Elk  Mountain  on 
the  northerly  end,  these  latter  mountains  lying  in  Carbon 
County.  Jelm  Mountain  and  Sheep  Mountain  are  evidently 
uplifts  similar  to  the  eastern  range,  or  Laramie  Hills  uplift, 
and  show  a  similar  red  granite  as  a  core  with  the  sedimentary 
formations  lying  thereon  on  either  side  of  the  mountain,  and 
appearing  again  on  the  western  side  of  the  Centennial  Valley 
lying  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Medicine  Bow  Mountains. 

The  Medicine  Bow  Range  shows  these  same  red  granites 
in  many  places,  and  with  them  are  associated  gray  granites, 
schists  and  similar  rocks.  These  form  the  ranges  proper,  but 
near  the  central  portion  of  the  range  in  Wyoming  occur  what 
is  known  as  Snowy  Range,  forming  the  highest  point  of  the 
Medicine  Bow  Range.  Here  the  formation  consists  of  quartz- 
ites,  trachytes,  porphyries  and  similar  rocks,  the  whole  range 
affording  an  intensely  interesting  field  of  study  for  the  eco- 
nomic geologist. 

The  ranges  extend  south  into  Colorado,  and  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  the  territory  included  in  these  and  adjacent  ranges 
which  are  naturally  tributary  to  the  Laramie  Basin  region,  and 
where  conditions  similar  to  those  here  described  will  be  found, 
on  investigation,  to  obtain  at  these  points. 

West  of  the  Medicine  Bow  Range  is  the  broad  valley  of 
the  North  Platte  River,  and  west  of  the  river  lie  the  Sierra 
Madre  Mountains  in  southern  Carbon  County,  where  the 
famous  Ferris-Haggarty  and  Doane-Rambler  mines  are  lo- 
cated, and,  with  the  ranges  of  the  Medicine  Bow  Mountains 
are  popularly  known  as  the  Grand  Encampment*  Copper  Dis- 
trict, which  together  form  the  principal  copper  producing  lo- 
calities of  Southern  Wyoming.  These  regions  are  covered  by 
a  bulletin  by  the  State  Geologist,  copies  of  which  may  be  had 
by  applying  to  the  Geologist  at  Cheyenne. 

MINING  IN  THE  MEDICINE  BOW  MOUNTAINS. 

Mining  in  this  region  has  been  carried  on  since  the  first 
Spanish  explorers  worked  their  way  northward  along  the 
Rocky  Mountain  Range  from  their  landing  places  on  the 
Mexican  coast,  as  traces  of  these  ancient  workings  have  been 
found,  together  with  old  tools,  weapons  and  other  articles  in- 
dicating the  presence  of  these  the  earliest  pioneers.  These 


^m   vi 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  71 

ancient  workings  are  supplemented  by  others  dating  from 
the  first  emigrant  train  across  the  old  Julesburg-Pass  Creek- 
California  trail.  These  prospectors  were  either  killed  or  peri- 
odically run  out  by  the  Indians  for  many  years,  even  after  the 
Union  Pacific  railroad  was  built  through  in  1867. 

In  1868  gold  was  discovered  in  Moore's  Gulch,  a  small 
tributary  of  Douglas  Creek,  and  while  there  is  some  evidence 
that  gulch  mining  has  been  carried  on  in  the  lower  tributaries 
of  Douglas  Creek  at  much  earlier  periods,  this  is  the  first  well 
authenticated  discovery  of  pay  values  in  what  is  now  known 
as  Medicine  Bow  Mountains,  though  Hayden  m  his  ''Report  of 
the  Territories,  1867-8-9,"  says  that  "valuable  specimens  of 
ores  and  placer  gold"  had  been  brought  to  him  from  the 
mountains  southeast  of  Fort  Fred  Steele,  and  known  at  that 
time  as  Elk  Mountain  and  Medicine  Bow  Mountains,  but 
there  is  no  record  of  any  prominent  or  permanent  discovery 
made  at  this  time. 

Following  the  discovery  of  gold  in  Moore's  Gulch,  placer 
mining  became  very  active  and  continued  for  a  number  of 
years,  some  of  the  gulches  being  worked  for  many  years  by 
crude  methods  and  produced  a  great  deal  of  gold,  but  there 
is  no  present  way  of  determining  the  total  amount  produced. 

The  first  lode  claim  located  in  Albany  County  of  which 
there  is  any  authentic  record  was  the  Morning  Star  claim,  now 
known  as  the  Douglas  mine  on  Douglas  Creek,  which  was 
made  in  1870,  and  since  that  time  lode  mining  has  continued 
with  frequent  activities  in  the  different  camps  of  the  district, 
notably  at  Centennial,  where  the  Centennial  mine  was  opened 
up  in  1876;  the  Keystone  at  Keystone  in  1878;  the  Cummins 
camp  at  Jelm  in  1879,  leading  up  to  the  discovery  of  copper  in 
the  great  Rambler  mine  in  1900,  and  since  that  time  mining  in 
the  Medicine  Bow  has  become  a  permanent  and  profitable  fact. 

The  Medicine  Bow  Placer  Districts. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  every  stream  which  heads 
on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Medicine  Bow  Mountains  in  Wyo- 
ming contains  placer  gold  and  that  nearly  every  gulch  on  this 
slope  will  yield  some  return  to  the  prospector  with  shovel,  pick 
and  pan.  Neither  is  it  too  much  to  say  that  every  gulch  and 
stream  in  this  locality  has  been  tested  in  this  manner  and  a 
number  of  streams,  especially  Douglas  Creek  and  its  tribu- 
taries, have  been  found  to  carry  the  yellow  metal  in  commer- 
cial or  paying  quantities. 

To  the  early  prospector,  whose  outfit  consisted  of  a  couple 
of  burros,  a  pick,  shovel  and  gold  pan,  a  little  grub  and  a  blan- 
ket, pay  dirt  means  only  gravel  easy  to  get  at,  easy  to  pan  and 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


High    School   Building. 


East   Side  School. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  73 

with  a  sufficient  number  of  large  nuggets  to  enable  him  to 
make  a  day's  pay  .whenever,  he  came  on  a  stream.  The  man 
who  followed  him  considered  as  pay  dirt  any  gravel  which 
warranted  the  quick  building  of  rough  board  sluices  and  rif- 
fles, with  the  additional  facilities  of  a  small  ditch  which  could 
be  constructed  before  the  washing  season  allowed  active  work 
in  the  creek  beds.  Placer  enterprises  of  this  sort  are  neces- 
sarily few^  and  short  lived,  and  they  were  followed  by  the  com- 
pany which  constructed  larger  and  longer  ditches  than  their 
individual  predecessors,  and  installed  a  giant,  with  long  ditches, 
and  flumes  at  the  base  of  the  pit  with  a  string  of  riffles  long 
enough  to  catch  any  stray  particles  of  gold  that  might  other- 
wise escape. 

The  next  step  in  the  hydraulic  history  of  a  camp  is  the 
installation  of  numerous  mining  devices  by  associations  of 
owners  which  endeavor  to  work  the  ground  "worked  out"  by 
the  gold  pan  and  small  ground  sluice  methods  by  sundry  and 
various  patent  "processes'  and  "machines"  guaranteed  by  the 
inventor  to  be  the  only  thing  ever  really  accomplished  by  the 
miner  and  which  usually  stands  as  a  melancholy  monument  to 
misdirected  energy  among  the  willows,  and  a  too  blind  faith 
in  the  works  of  man. 

The  Medicine  Bow  placer  districts  have  passed  through  all 
of  these  stages  and  now  are  again  coming  to  the  front  as  a 
field  for  intelligent  enterprise, "backed  by  sufficient  capital  for 
commercial  operations,  and  under  careful  direction  will  cer- 
tainly show  profitable  returns.  The  presence  of  gold  in  these 
creek  bottoms  has  never  been  doubted  or  denied.  Every 
placer  enterprise  that  has  ever  been  conducted  in  these  moun- 
tains has  shown  the  presence  of  gold  in  the  lands  worked,  and 
some  of  the  enterprises  have  been  conducted  profitably  to  the 
extent  of  their  capital  and  equipment,  ceasing  to  work  when 
they  reached  a  point  where  they  could  not  make  it  a  success 
with  the  means  at  hand. 

The  Eastern  Medicine  Bow  Water  Shed. 

This  would  practically  include  every  stream  which  heads 
on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Medicine  Bow  range  of  mountains, 
and  without  burdening  the  reader  (for  the  present)  writh  a 
catalogue  of  the  small  creeks  of  the  region,  these  may  be 
classed  as  the  tributaries  of  the  Medicine  Bow  River  at  the 
north  end  of  the  mountains,  the  tributaries  of  the  Little  Lara- 
mie  River  at  Centennial  and  the  central  part  of  the  region,  and 
those  of  the  Big  Laramie  River  at  the  southern  end  of  the 
county  in  the  Jelm  Mountain  vicinity.  Add  to  these  the  tribu- 
taries of  Douglas  Creek,  which  rises  on  the  southeastern  slope 


74  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


North    Side    School. 


West    Side   School. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  75 

of  the  Snowy  Range,  flows  in  a  southerly  course  to  within  six 
miles  of  the  Wyoming-Colorado  line,  then  turns  abruptly  west 
and  flows  into  the  North  Platte  River  in  Carbon  County.  This 
creek,  with  its  tributaries,  drains  the  southwestern  slope  of 
the  Medicine  Bow  range,  and  on  this  creek  and  its  tributaries 
are  found  the  principal  gold-producing  gravels  which  are  noted 
in  this  section  of  Albany  County. 

Numerous  placer  workings  are  also  found  at  the  head  of 
Pass  Creek  on  the  north;  Brush  Creek  and  French  Creek, 
which  head  on  the  western  slope  of  the  same  vicinity  as  Doug- 
las Creek,  and  to  a  lesser  extent  in  South  French  Creek  and 
Mullen  Creek,  and  in  outline  these  rivers,  creeks  and  their 
tributaries  may  be  said  to  cover  the  water  shed  of  the  Medi- 
cine Bow  range  in  Wyoming. 

The  Douglas  Creek  Placer  Mines. 

These  include  all  the  placers  which  may  be  found  on 
Douglas  Creek  and  its  tributaries-.  Gold  was  first  discovered 
in  this  district  by  Iram  M.  Moore  in  what  is  now  known  as 
Moore's  Gulch,  one  of  the  tributaries  of  Douglas  Creek,  in  the 
fall  of  1868.  The  district  was  then  organized  and  called  Doug- 
las Placer  District,  Mr.  Moore  being  elected  its  first  president 
and  Captain  John  Metcalf  its  first  recorder.  The  principal 
work  was  done  in  this  district  in  1869,  and,  though  nothing 
but  the  ordinary  sluice  box,  rocker,  long  torn  and  gold  pan 
were  used,  about  $8,000  worth  of  gold  was  taken  out  of  this 
gulch  in  that  spring.  It  is  given  on  good  authority  that  many 
washings  yielded  from  $2  to  $2.50  to  the  pan  and  many  nug- 
gets were  found  weighing  from  5  to  20  dwts. 

Douglas  Creek  proper,  is  about  thirty  miles  in  length, 
and  the  greater  portion  of  its  length  has  been  located  for  pla- 
cer, together  with  its  most  important  tributaries,  which  are 
Lake  Creek,  Muddy,  Spring,  Keystone,  Beaver  Gulch,  Horse, 
Gold  Run,  Joe's  Creek,  Moore's  Gulch,  Dave's  Creek,  Ruth's, 
Elk,  Bear  and  Willow  Creeks.  The  district  may  be  stated  to 
embrace  an  area  fifteen  miles  long  and  ten  miles  wide,  and  lies 
forty-five  miles  due  west  from  Laramie. 

The  Douglas  Creek  flats  vary  in  width  from  50  Uri,ooo 
feet.  Operations  may  be  carried  on  in  this  district  for  six  or 
seven  months  in  the  year,  the  working  season  beginning  about 
the  middle  of  April  and  closing  about  the  middle  of  Novem- 
ber. The  water  varies  in  each  creek,  but  may  be  given  as  run- 
ning from  6,000  miners'  inches  during  high  water  in  the  spring 
down  to  1,500  miners'  inches  at  low  water  in  August  and  Sep- 
tember in  main  Douglas  Creek,  and  the  general  fall  of  these 
creeks  varies  from  20  feet  to  125  feet  to  the  mile. 


Buildings  of  the  University  of  Wyoming. 


Buildings  of  the  University  of  Wyoming. 


78  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 

Those  who  are  best  informed  on  the.  actual  working  condi- 
tions of  these  creeks  state  that  about  25  per  cent  of  gold  in  this 
district  is  coarse  and  that  a  few  of  the  nuggets  taken  out  have 
considerable  .quartz  attached  to  them.  Nuggets  have  been 
taken  out  in  the.  different  portions  of  the  district  that  weighed 
from  16  to  68  dwts.  each,  but  the  majority  of  the  gold  is  in  the 
shape  of  finer  particles  varying  from  fine  or  flour  gold  up  to 
flat  nuggets  an  eighth  of  an  inch  long.  The  greater  portion 
of  the  gold  is  found  deposited  on  the  bed  rock,  which  varies  in 
different  portions  of  the  district,  but  it  is  generally  of  a  granitic 
nature  and  usually  shows  considerably  decomposed  or  weath- 
ered. The  auriferous  gravel  beds  are  from  three  to  fifteen 
feet  in  thickness,  averaging  about  five  feet.  There  is  no  pipe 
clay  or  hard  cement  to  interfere  with  the  successful  washing 
of  the  gold,  unless  it  be  small  deposits  noted  locally  in  some 
places.  The  gravel  and  wrash  consists  of  the  decomposed, 
broken  and  washed  detritus  of  the  surrounding  hills,  and  the 
formations  consist  principally  of  granite,  diorite,  schist,  quartz- 
ite  and  slate,  the  boulders  varying  of  course  in  each  locality, 
with  the  usual  amount  of  quartz,  sand  and  black  sand,  the  latter 
resulting  from  the  crushing  of  the  black  oxides  or  iron  which 
occur  in  many  of  the  formations  of  this  locality. 

Platinum  has  been  found  in  a  number  of  these  placers, 
usually  associated  with  the  black  sand,  and  metallic  platinum 
has  been  found  in  a  number  of  instances. 

LODE  MINING  IN  ALBANY  COUNTY. 

Geology  of  the  Medicine  Bow  Range. 

The  Medicine  Bow  Range  consists  of  a  core  of  granite, 
with  smaller  islands  and  spurs  of  the  same  material  showing 
both  in  and  through  the  associated  metamorphic  formations. 
The  granite  is  usually  of  a  reddish  feldsitic  variety,  in  many 
instances  much  altered  and  showing  little  quartz  or  mica,  but 
in  others  showing  a  predominance  of  quartz,  forming  gray 
granites,  and  frequently  showing  strong  evidences  of  meta- 
morphism,  especially  in  the  outcrops,  and  which  is  usually 
limited  in  extent. 

The  metamorphic  formations  consist  principally  of  Ai- 
gonkian  schists,  usually  lying  on  the  granites  and  having  a 
varying  dip  and  trend  or  direction  in  different  localities.  These 
schists  are  of  a  number  of  varieties,  some  of  which  are  local 
or  limited  in  extent,  the  usual  schist  being  a  fine-grained  black 
mica  schist,  and  fine-grained  horn-blende  and  tourmaline 
schist  in  bands  varying  from  a  few  feet  to  several  hundred 
feet  in  width. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  79 

Associated  with  these  varieties  have  been  noted  muscovite 
or  white  mica  schists  and  gneiss,  and  amphibolite  schist  in 
various  localities. 

The  dike  rocks  are  locally  called  "diorite,"  but  have  been 
identified  and  classified  by  the  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
vey as  belonging  to  the  Gabbro  rocks.  Several  varieties  have 
been  noted.  These  dykes  vary  in  size  from  a  few  inches  thick 
to  a  huge  sheet  several  hundred  feet  in  thickness,  and  generally 
lie  conformably  with  the  adjacent  schist  and  quartzite,  having 
the  same  trend  or  direction  and  the  same  dip,  but  instances 
are  noted  where  the  dykes  cut  across  the  formation  at  a  vary- 
ing angle,  and  are  noted  in  the  granite  near  the  New  Rambler, 
on  Douglas  Creek.  Associated  with  the  schists  and  diorites 
are  ledges  or  bands  of  quartzite  and  slates,  which  lie  conform- 
ably with  the  including  schists,  as  far  as  now  known,  and  are 
usually  of  considerable  extent. 

It  is  noted  that  in  many  instances  the  foregoing  rocks 
(schists,  dyke  rocks,  quartzites  and  slates)  often  show  an  ex- 
tensive and  sometimes  a  complete  metamorphism,  and  change 
from  their  original  condition,  leaving  only  the  structure  as  a 
means  of  identification,  the  composing  materials  being  replaced 
by  silica  and  lime. 

The  dyke  rocks  usually  show  a  weathered  and  softened 
condition  in  the  vicinity  of  the  schist  alteration,  but  this  is 
often  local  and  does  not  affect  the  main  body  of  the  rock. 

The  Snowy  Range,  in  the  Medicine  Bow  Mountains,  is 
distinct  in  formation  from  the  adjacent  country,  and  consists 
of  trachite  and  quartzites,  with  an  occasional  dyke  of  porphyry. 

On  either  side  of  the  Medicine  Bow  Range  the  upper 
carboniferous  limestones  are  noted,  with  the  succeeding  sedi- 
mentary formation  dipping  away  from  the  main  range  until 
covered  by  the  wash  of  the  valley. 

Mineralization. 

The  mineralization  may  be  said  to  be  general  throughout 
these  formations,  but  varies  in  quantity  and  composition  in 
each  locality. 

In  the  granites,  schists,  dyke  rocks  and  quartzites  are 
found  bunches,  streaks  and  veins  of  the  different  forms  of  iron 
and  copper,  both  oxidized  and  base,  varying  from  a  tiny  crystal 
or  speck  to  a  huge  mass  a  number  of  tons  in  weight  enclosed 
in  the  adjacent  rocks,  and  which  may  or  may  not  be  part  of  or 
related  to  the  body  of  ore. 

Ore  Deposits  and  Ores. 

In  a  district  as  little  developed  as  this  portion  of  the 
Grand  Encampment  country,  it  is  evident  that  the  precise  ore 


8o  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


Residence    of   Hon.    W.    H.    Holliday. 


Edward  Ivinson  Residence. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  81 

conditions  may  not  be  fully  understood  until  greater  depths 
have  been  reached  and  some  of  each  class  of  ores  and  ore 
deposits  fully  exploited. 

At  present  these  are  understood  to  consist  of  two  classes, 
viz. :  ores  found  in  the  hard,  unchanged  formation,  the  diorites 
and  unaltered  schists,  associated  with  a  vein  quartz,  as  at  the 
Blakeslee  and  Verde  properties,  south  of  Battle,  as  distin- 
guished from  the  ores  found  as  a  contact  deposit  between  two 
different  formations,  as  at  the  Ferris-Haggarty  and  Doane- 
Rambler  mines,  and  a  fissure  deposit,  as  at  the  New  Rambler, 
on  Douglas  Creek,  in  the  gray  dioritic  granite.  The  former 
may  be  termed  original  ores  and  the  latter  "secondary  ores," 
or  ores  of  replacement. 

In  the  first  case,  sulphides  of  copper  are  found  in  the  out- 
crops, with  but  little  change  beyond  the  shallow  surface 
oxidization  of  the  specimen,  staining  the  adjacent  rock  with 
iron  oxides  and  copper  carbonates,  often  leaving  the  un- 
changed sulphides  covered  only  with  a  thin  film  of  oxides. 

In  the  latter  case,  the  sulphides  are  encountered  at  "water 
level,"  viz. :  the  level  of  permanent  underground  water,  vary- 
ing in  depth  in  different  localities  and  covered  by  a  capping  of 
iron  oxides,  known  as  the  "iron  cap,"  the  "gossan"  of  the  Cor- 
nish miner.  This  cap  is  usually  a  light,  soft  and  porous  brown 
oxide  of  iron,  or  limonite,  sometime  silicious,  and  associated 
with  the  limonite  are  noted  forms  of  hematite  or  red  oxide  of 
iron  in  varying  quantity. 

Throughout  the  district  have  been  noted  a  number  of 
huge  ledges  of  oxidized  iron,  notably  at  the  Gertrude  and  the 
Hidden  Treasure,  near  Battle,  and  on  Iron  Creek  and  French 
Creek,  in  the  Medicine  Bow  Range.  The  cappings  of  these 
ledges  are  usually  a  very  hard,  silicious,  red  hematite,  which 
gives  place  with  depth  to  the  softer  iron  oxide  forms,  more  or 
less  stained  with  copper. 

In  many  instances  the  iron  cap  contains  thin  scales  of  na- 
tive copper  and  shows  stains  of  the  green  carbonate  of  copper 
or  Malachite  and  some  blue  carbonate  of  copper  or  Azurite. 
Small  amounts  of  Chrysacolla  or  silicate  of  copper  are  often 
found,  as  well  as  some  of  the  rarer  forms  of  the  oxidized  cop- 
per minerals,  noted  later. 

The  principal  ores  are  the  yellow  pyrites  of  copper  or  chal- 
copyrite  and  "peacock  copper"  or  Bornite,  and  the  Coveliite 
ores  of  the  New  Rambler.  Some  phenomenally  rich  copper 
glance  or  chalcocite  has  been  struck,  mostly  near  the  surface, 
as  in  the  Keener-Price  at  Battle,  the  Doane-Rambler  and  New 
Rambler  and  many  other  places,  but  in  each  case  the  deposit 
has  been  limited. 


82  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


Residence   of  E.   D.   Hiskey. 


The  J.  T.  Holliday   Residence. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  83 

The  works  so  far  have  shown  that  the  ores  immediately 
succeeding  the  oxidized  ores  underlying  the  iron  cap  are  very 
rich,  often  running  from  35  per  cent  to  49  per  cent  copper  in 
carload  lots,  as  shipping  returns  have  shown,  but  this  is  evi- 
dently a  secondary  enrichment,  due  to  the  leaching  of  the  iron 
cap  above  and  gradually  gives  place  to  the  lower  and  more  per- 
manent grade  of  ore  that  is  reached  as  depth  is  gained. 

It  is  evident  that  the  permanent  ores  of  this  district,  when 
opened  up  by  deep  workings,  will  prove  to  be  a  low  grade 
Chalcopyrite  ore,  suitable  for  treatment  by  a  concentrating, 
roasting  arid  smelting  process. 

Gold  Hill. 

This  covers  practically  all  the  camps  lying  along  the 
Snowy  Range  and  the  Albany-Carbon  County  line,  a  number 
of  them  being  in  each  county. 

The  Laramie,  Hahns  Peak  and  Pacific  Railroad  runs  to 
Centennial,  Gold  Hill  and  Medicine  Bow  district. 

Elk  Mountain. 

This  is  the  most  northerly  of  the  ranges  comprising  the 
Medicine  Bow  Range  in  Wyoming.  In  common  with  the  most 
of  these  ranges  on  this  eastern  side,  the  sedimentary  limestones 
of  the  Upper  Carboniferous  period  lie  on  the  schists  and  gran- 
ites of  the  earlier  formations,  and  at  the  Elk  Mountain  M.  & 
M.  Company's  property,  on  the  north  side  of  Pass  Creek,  the 
ore  is  found  at  or  near  the  contact  of  these  formations. 

This  ore,  in  the  upper  workings,  is  copper  glance,  oc- 
curring in  bunches  common  to  this  ore,  but  in  the  lower  work- 
ings is  giving  place  to  chalcopyrite,  which  is  becoming  more 
common  as  depth  is  reached.  At  the  outcrops  the  usual  iron 
oxides  were  found  staining  the  limestone,  with  some  glance 
and  a  great  deal  of  green  copper  carbonates  as  a  stain. 

Centennial  and  Jelm  Mountain. 

These  camps  are  located  on  the  east  slope  of  the  Medicine 
Bow  Range,  th'e  former  having  been  prospected  for  gold  al- 
most exclusively. 

Centennial,  on  the  line  of  the  Laramie,  Hahns  Peak  and 
Pacific  railroad,  has  shown  some  remarkably  rich  ores,  and  the 
half  dozen  properties  now  working  in  this  vicinity  are  making 
good  showings  and  will  be  heard  from  later. 

Jelm  Mountain  is  located  south  and  east  of  Centennial, 
near  the  Colorado- Wyoming  state  line,  on  the  Big  Laramie 
River,  and  mining  has  been  going  on  there  for  some  years, 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  85 

i 

development  work  having  been  done  on  a  number  of  properties 
and  mills  erected. 

The  Jelm  district  is  close  to  the  Colorado  state  line  and 
distant  about  thirty-five  miles  in  a  southwesterly  direction 
from  Laramie.  Encouraging  work  is  being  prosecuted  here 
by  several  companies.  The  Laramie  River,  in  close  proximity 
to  which  the  active  properties  are  located,  flows  through  the 
center  of  the  district  and  affords  an  unfailing  water  supply  for 
both  milling  and  mining  operations.  The  ores  are  gold  and 
copper-gold,  the  camp  having  become  known  upwards  of  thirty 
years  ago,  when  the  Gold  Hill  mine  was  quite  extensively 
worked  for  its  gold  ores.  Of  late  years,  more  attention  has 
been  given  to  the  copper  deposits,  and  considerable  bodies  of 
low  grade  ore  have  been  opened  up.  Owing  to  the  limited 
means  of  a  majority  of  the  operators,  rather  desultory  work 
has  been  carried  on,  but  the  indications  are  now  that  several 
companies  will  be  able  to  extensively  prosecute  developments 
henceforth. 

THE  LARAMIE  CEMENT  PLASTER  INDUSTRY. 

There  are  a  large  number  of  gypsum  deposits  in  Wyo- 
ming which  vary  in  composition  from  pure  crystal  to  gypsite 
powder.  The  Laramie  cement  plaster  is  made  from  a  de- 
posit of  gypsite  just  south  of  that  city. 

The  Geology  of  the  Laramie  Gypsite  Deposit.* 
The  Triassic  formation,  or  "red  beds"  as  it  is  commonly 
called,  which  is  exposed  all  along  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Laramie  Plains,  contains  a  great  deal  of  gypsum  and  one  strat- 
um of  considerable  thickness  near  the  bottom  of  the  formation 
and  only  a  little  above  the  sandstone  and  limestone  of  the 
Permian  and  Carboniferous.  This  bed  was  struck  in  the  Uni- 
versity artesian  well  at  a  depth  of  595  feet  and  the  Permian 
sandstone  at  about  800  feet.  The  Red  Buttes  gypsum  rock  is 
found  in  this  formation  and  doubtless  the  gypsum  outcrop 
could  be  found  at  almost  any  point  along  the  eastern  side  of 
the  Laramie  Plains  within  a  half  mile  of  the  limestone  and 
sandstone  exposures  which  form  the  western  slope  of  the 
Laramie  Mountains.  The  silica  and  limestone  washed  down 
from  these  exposures  have  mixed  with  the  disintegrated  gyp- 
sum of  the  Triassic  beds  and  have'been  deposited  in  depressions 
of  the  plains,  forming  numerous  beds  of  gypsite  or  gypsum 
earth.  These  deposits  can  often  be  detected  by  the  whiteness 
of  the  soil  and  the  peculiar  vegetation,  which  consists  of 
clumps  of  grease-wood 

"Compiled  from  a  bulletin  by  Profs.  Slosson,  Moudy  and  W.  C.  Knight,  of 
the  University  of  Wyoming. 


86  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  87 

Gypsite,  or  the  material  from  which  cement  piaster  is 
made,  contains  besides  the  gypsum  some  20  per  cent  of  other 
material,  such  as  clay,  sand  and  limestone.  The  composition 
of  the  different  products  on  the.  market  is  very  variable  and 
cannot  be  supposed  to  be  alike  in  their  value  and  use,  but 
what  difference  a  greater  or  less  amount  of  lime  or  silica  or 
magnesia  has  on  the  working  of  the  plaster  has  not  been  de- 
termined. The  action  of  these  substances  as  a  whole  is  to 
retard  the  time  of  setting  and  reduce  the  strength  as  com- 
pared wih  pure  plaster  of  paris. 

The  Laramie  gypsite  bed  has  an  average  depth  of  about 
nine  feet.  From  a  few  inches  below  the  surface  to  about 
seven  feet  it  is  pure  gypsite  powder,  then  comes  a  red  layer  of 
five  inches,  and  below  this  a  foot  or  more  of  the  white  gyp- 
site  powder  resting  on  gravel  and  red  clay.  The  plaster 
material  is  as  fine  as  flour,  requiring  no  grinding  or  even 
sifting.  It  is  plowed,  harrowed  and  scraped  up,  calcined  and 
loaded  on  the  cars. 

The  Manufacture  of  Cement  Plaster  at  Laramie. 

Plaster  of  paris  and  a  fine  quality  of  stucco  have  been 
made  at  Red  Buttes,  near  Laramie,  since  1889,  and  since  1897 
the  Consolidated  Company  have  been  putting  on  the  market 
a  plaster  made  from  the  ground  gypsum  rock. 

The  Laramie  cement  plaster  is  made  from  the  deposit 
above  noted,  which  covers  about  180  acres  and  has  been 
worked  since  1896.  Annual  output,  about  2.500  tons. 

Composition. 

The  composition  of  pure  gypsum,  from  which  the  plaster 
is  made,  is  as  follows : 

Calcium  sulphate    79. 1  %     100.0  parts 

Water 20.9  26.4 


100.0  126.4 
And  of  pure  plaster  of  paris : 

Calcium  sulphate   93-8%  100.0  parts 

Wrater  .                                                               .  6.2  6.6 


100.0         106.6 

The  composition  of  the  finished  cement  plaster  is  as  fol- 
lows : 

Water , 6.93% 

Insoluble  residue  (silica)   5.50 

Alumina,  A12O:{ 59 


88 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  89 

Lime,  CaO 37.1 1 

Magnesia,  MgO  1.45 

Sulphuric  acid,  SO3 43-37 

Carbonic  acid  (by  diff.) 5.05 


100.00 
These  may  be  combined  as  follows : 

Water 6.93% 

Insoluble  residue  (silica)   5.50 

Alumina,  A12O3 59 

Magnesium  carbonate 3.04 

Calcium  carbonate 7.86 

Calcium  sulphate 73-73 

Calcium  oxide 2.35 


100.00 
There  was  a  trace  of  iron  but  too  small  to  determine. 

Crushing  Strength. 

The  crushing  strength  of  the  three  kinds  of  cement  as 
marketed  with  about  same  time  of  setting  is  as  follows : 

Red  Buttes  cement  plaster,  without  sand 5200 

Laramie  cement  plaster,  without  sand 4065 

Agatite  cement  plaster,  without  sand 355o 

The  Red  Buttes  plaster  contained  numerous  soft  spots 
where  the  plaster  did  not  set,  owing  to  imperfect  burning. 
These  were  not  found  in  the  Laramie  and  Agatite  plasters. 

Although  the  individual  particles  of  plaster  are  heavier 
than  water,  yet  a  bushel  weighs  64  pounds,  or  95  per  cent  as 
much  as  a  bushel  of  water.  A  block  of  the  cement  plaster  after 
it  is  set  and  dry,  containing  50  parts  sand  per  100  parts  of 
plaster,  has  a  specific  gravity  of  1.5  compared  with  water.  A 
cubic  foot  weighs  93.5  pounds.  The  sand  used  had  a  specific 
gravity  of  1.5  and  a  ten-quart  bucket  holds  29.5  pounds. 

ALBANY  COUNTY  COAL  MINES. 

The  following  data  on  the  coal  mines  of  Albany  County 
are  taken  from  a  bulletin  on  "Coal  Resources  of  Wyoming/' 
by  Prof.  L.  W.  Trumbull,  University  of  Wyoming,  1906: 

The  county  has  no  large  mines.  For  years  there  has  been 
a  small  amount  dug  for  local  consumption.  In  fact,  what  was 
probably  the  first  mine  in  the  state  was  opened  by  the  Denver 
and  Salt  Lake  Stage  Company  in  1865,  near  where  the  old 
Overland  Trail  crosses  Rock  Creek.  The  coal  was  used  for 
blacksmithing  and  was  carried  to  other  points  on  the  trail  for 
this  purpose. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


But  a  small  portion  of  the  county  is  underlain  by  Laramie 
rock.  The  most  southern  point  at  which  coal  has  been  found 
is  on  the  hills  to  the  north  of  Centennial  Valley.  Here  coal 
of  inferior  quality  has  been  dug  at  various  times,  but  the  coal 
strata  are  so  bent  and  crushed,  and  are  tilted  so  against  the 


mountains  that  the  coal  is  much  broken  and  slacked.  It  may 
be  that  farther  to  the  east  good  coal  can  be  procured  at  depth. 
In  digging  a  deep  well  on  Mill  Brook,  coal  was  cut  at  300  feet. 
One  six-foot  and  one  three-foot  vein  were  passed  through,  but 
so  far  as  known  no  samples  of  it  were  saved,  so  that  nothing  is 
known  regarding  its  quality. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


Coal  is  being  dug  for  local  use  among  the  ranchmen  in 
Coal  Bank  Hollow  by  the  Monarch  Coal  Company,  who  re- 
port a  production  of  500  tons  during  1904,  which  was  sold 
at  $2.  This  opening  is  in  section  8,  township  19  north,  range 
77  west,  and  shows  ten  feet  of  coal.  On  Rock  Creek  the  Dia- 
mond Cattle  Company  have  an  opening  in  section  7,  township 
19  north,  range  78  west,  which  shows  six  feet  of  coal.  This 
opening  produced  200  tons  in  1904,  which  sold  at  $2  at  the 
pit  mouth.  At  this  point  the  strata  are  nearly  horizontal,  but 
farther  down  the  creek  the  country  is  much  faulted.  Coal  can 
undoubtedly  be  opened  up  at  different  points  nearly  as  far 
down  as  the  Diamond  ranch  house,  but  it  will  not  be  in  large, 
continuous  bodies,  owing  to  the  faulting.  This  coal  is  of  the 
Laramie  age. 

At  a  point  a  mile  south  of  Rock  River  the  railroad  cut 
shows  a  thin  seam  of  coal  in  older  rock.  At  one  time  a  slope 
was  driven  to  open  this  older  coal  near  Harper  and  several 
feet  of  good  coal  was  exposed,  but  a  sudden  rush  of  water 
drove  the  workmen  out  and  the  opening  has  since  caved.  No 
data  are  obtainable  regarding  it. 

Table  of  Approximate  Analyses  of  Albany  County  Coal. 


NAME  OF  MINE 

Water 

Volatile 
combustible 
matter 

Fixed 
carbon 

Ash 

Sulphur 

Total 
fuel 

Brown 

11  85 

34  65 

47  .  30 

6  20 

1.25 

81.95 

Brown   (1894)             

11.25 

36.85 

45.00 

6.90 

1.13 

81.  ST. 

Chase    

14.50 

34.50 

44.75 

6.25 

1.03 

75.25 

Rock   Creek 

14  40 

34  90 

39  70 

11  00 

74  CO 

Rock   Creek 

11  50 

32  40 

49  70 

6.40 

82.10 

Dutton 

11  85 

34  65 

47.30 

6.20 

81.85 

CLAYS,  SHALES  AND  MARLS. 

Reference  is  made  in  the  general  article  on  "The  Geology 
of  Albany  County"  to  the  later  Cretaceous  formations  which 
compose  the  Laramie  Plains,  and  in  nearly  all  the  recognized 
divisions  or  periods  of  this  age  are  found  materials  suitable 
for  commercial  use,  in  some  cases  so  pure  as  to  require  little 
or  no  additional  material  to  become  marketable  products. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  these  is  the  deposit  of 
marl  in  the  Niobrara  Cretaceous  formation  that  outcrops  at  a 
point  eight  miles  southwest  of  Laramie  and  extends  in  a  south- 
easterly and  northwesterly  direction  along  the  range  in  com- 
mon with  the  other  formation  exposed. 

This  marl  is  suitable  for  making  Portland  cement,  is  nearly 
pure  and  a  greater  portion  of  the  deposit  can  be  made  into 
ce^nent  by  simple  calcination  and  the  remainder  rendered 
suitable  by  addition  of  a  little  lime  which  also  outcrops  in 
this  vicinity. 


I- 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  93 

Prof.  L.  W.  Trumbull  of  the  University  of  Wyoming 
states  that  the  composition  for  commercial  purposes  is  as 
follows : 

Carbonate  of  lime 75% 

Silica 10% 

Alumina .   6% 

Small  amounts  of  iron  etc.  which  vary. 

This  deposit  is  most  available  at  the  above  point,  where 
it  is  fifteen  feet  thick,  where  it  is  practically  uncovered  for  a 
width  of  1,200  feet  and  extends  with  other  formations  along 
the  range,  where  it  outcrops  at  various  places  and  under 
various  conditions. 

The  shales  of  the  Fox  Hill  Cretaceous  are  utilized  by  the 
Wyoming  Pressed  Brick  Company  of  Laramie  for  the  raw 
material  for  their  brick,  which  are  rapidly  becoming  commer- 
cially important.  The  shales  are  mined  at  a  point  two  and  one- 
half  miles  west  of  Laramie,  are  at  present  hauled  by  team  to 
the  yards  in  town,  ground  and  puddled  and  made  up  into  two 
classes  of  brick  for  the  general  market.  The  present  capacity 
of  these  yards  is  1,500,000  bricks  for  the  season,  which  can  be 
doubled  at  any  time. 

These  brick  are  of  a  beautiful  red  buff  color,  stand  a  test 
of  5,400  pounds  per  square  inch  and  weather  splendidly.  The 
South  Omaha  passenger  depot  on  the  Union  Pacific  railroad  is 
built  of  these  brick,  and  other  prominent  buildings.  The  brick 
are  quoted  at  $9.50  and  $15  per  M.,  f.  o.  b.  cars,  Laramie.  Dr. 
A.  B.  Hamilton  is  secretary  of  the  above  company. 

The  clays  of  the  Fort  Benton  period  attain  a  commercial 
importance  in  the  utilization  of  the  "soap  clays"  or  "Benton- 
ite,"  which  occur  in  massive  beds  at  Rock  Creek  and  other 
points  in  this  county.  These  clays  have  been  mined  and 
shipped  for  years  by  Mr.  William  Taylor  of  Rock  Creek,  and 
there  are  other  deposits  in  that  vicinity.  This  clay  contains, 
by  analysis,  silica,  alumina,  magnesia,  iron,  sulphur  and  water, 
samples  having  shown  over  89  per  cent  silicate  of  alumina,  3 
per  cent  magnesia,  i%  per  cent  lime  and  sulphur,  I  per  cent 
iron  and  6  per  cent  water.  This  clay  is  used  as  an  adulterant, 
as  a  filler  in  paper  making  and  medical  purposes,  being  worked 
up  and  sold  under  the  name  of  "antiphlogistine"  after  being 
known  and  used  for  years  by  Indians  and  stockmen  for  the 
general  purposes  of  this  medicine. 

Other  clays  there  are  up  and  down  this  range  and  other 
ranges,  and  these  three  materials  are  only  given  to  show  the 
vast  variety  found  here  and  the  opportunity  that  exists  in 
these  scarcely  known  and  certainly  little  worked  fields  for  the 


94 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


man  who  has  made  these  materials  his  practical  study  and 
who  knows  their  cash  value  when  properly  handled. 

BUILDING  AND  LIME  STONES. 

Building  stone  of  nearly  every  desired  kind,  from  granites 
to  the  softer  sandstones,  lie  east  of  Laramie  along  the  Laramie 
Hills  and  in  well-nigh  endless  quantity. 

Two  miles  east  of  the  city,  on  a  spur  of  the  Union  Pacific 
railroad,  are  the  quarries  of  limestone  which  supply  a  number 
of  the  sugar  beet  factories  of  Colorado  with  the  pure  limestone 
so  necessary  to  this  process.  Their  beds  extend  along  the 
range  northerly  and  southerly  for  about  ten  miles  or  more  and 
are  practically  pure  lime,  running  as  high  as  96  per  cent  car- 
bonate of  lime.  During  the  season  of  1905  40,000  tons  of  this 
limestone  were  shipped  to  the  sugar  beet  factories  and  10,000 
tons  for  commercial  use.  Comment  on  the  advantage  of  this 
limestone  for  burning  lime  and  other  purposes  is  unnecessary. 

SODA  DEPOSITS. 

The  soda  deposits  of  Albany  County  consist  of  two  groups 
of  lakes — one  located  about  twelve  miles  southwest  of  Laramie 
and  the  other  twenty-three  miles  southwest,  the  first  group  of 
lakes  being  owned  by  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  Company ; 
the  second  by  the  First  National  Bank  of  Laramie  and  an  Eng- 
lish party. 


Laramie  Electric  Co.  Light  and   Power  Plai 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  95 

These  lakes  have  been  operated  and  soda  used  since  1873. 
The  lake§  contain  probably  100,000,000  cubic  feet  of  crystal- 
lized sulphate  of  soda,  and  in  places  the  deposit  of  soda  is 
twelve  feet  thick. 

In  1876,  at  the  Centennial  Exposition,  a  solid  cube  con- 
taining over  200  cubic  feet  of  crystalline  sulphate  of  soda  was 
exhibited.  At  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago  a  cube  fully  as 
large  was  shown ;  also  another  of  the  same  extraordinary  size 
was  exhibited  at  the  St.  Louis  Fair. 

The  chemical  analysis  is  as  follows : 

Water 54.98 

Sulphate  of  soda 44-55 

Chloride  of  calcium 43 

Chloride  of  magnesia 04 

These  are  the  most  wonderful  deposits  of  soda  in  the 
world,  only  waiting  for  some  person  with  capital  to  come  and 
open  them  up. 

FIELD  AND  STREAM. 
Summer  Resorts  and  Camping  Facilities. 

From  the  city  limits  of  Laramie  the  plains  undulate  to  the 
base  of  the  Snowy  Range  upon  the  south,  to  the  Medicine  Bow 
Mountains  upon  the  west,  to  the  Laramie  Range  upon  the  east 
and  to  Laramie  Peak  and  Elk  Mountain  upon  the  north,  it  is 
in  these  mountains  and  hills,  and  in  the  valleys  of  the  streams 
which  find  in  them  their  sources,  that  one  discovers  every- 
where spots  of  which  the  charm  appeals  to  every  heart  and 
tempts  the  most  staid  and  prosaic  and  most  unromantic  of 
beings  into  expressions  of  keen  appreciation.  Here  the  great 
golden  eagle,  soaring  and  wheeling  in  the  clearness  and  bright- 
ness of  the  summer  blue,  looks  down  upon  many  a  nook  and 
hollow  which  has  never  yet,  perhaps,  known  the  tread  of  man. 
There  are  forests  here  and  glades  which  are  as  they  were  be- 
fore Columbus  led  the  way  into  the  glowing  west,  and  which, 
since  the  red  man  followed  into  their  quiet  recesses  his 
wounded  game,  have  seen  little  of  men  other  than  an  occa- 
sional prospector,  hunter  or  trapper. 

Down  in  the.  valleys  are  dotted  everywhere  the  ranch 
homes  of  the  cattle  men  and  the  sheep  men,  now  for  the  first 
time  being  transformed  into  farms  and  scientifically  irrigated 
areas,  under  the  awakening  impetus  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  worth  of  the  land  and  climate.  From  every  mountain 
peak  there  is  obtainable  a  view  of  timber  and  rocks,  of  valleys 
and  plains,  which  ten  times  over  repays  the  trouble  of  the 
climb.  Everywhere  the  eye  finds  nothing  but  the  delightful 


96  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


Trout   Fishing  Is  a  Popular   Sport. 


a  "Wil'd  Goose  CW   Near  Laramie.    • 

Hunting  Is  a  Pastime  All  Enjoy   Here. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  97 

and  restful  smile  of  Mother  Nature  at  her  best  while  the  lungs 
drink  deeply  in  an  air  which  is  as  exhilarating  as  sparkling 
wine  and  the  body  responds  to  the  bracing  and  vitalizing  in- 
fluences of  the  perfect  pureness,  wholesomeness  and  freshness 
in  all  its  surroundings. 

Mountain  Climbing. 

To  those  to  whom  the  exertion  necessary  for  the  climb  is 
not  irksome,  or  who  will  trust  themselves  to  the  honest  care  of 
a  well-broken  pony  or  painstaking  burro,  there  are  higher 
points  to  be  reached  from  which  the  reward  obtained  in  far- 
extending  view  is  more  than  trebled.  There  are  summits 
within  comparatively  easy  reach,  from  which  a  large  part  of 
southern  Wyoming  and  northern  Colorado  can  be  scanned. 
There  are  fields  of  eternal  snow  within  three  hours'  climb  of 
the  railroad ;  there  are  brilliant  patches  of  alpine  flowers  grow- 
ing in  the  hot  sun  along  the  edges  of  snow-banks;  there  are 
lakes  above  timber-line,  fed  by  snow-fields,  in  which  the 
speckled  and  rainbow  trout  fairly  teem,  arid  it  is  possible  to 
leave  Laramie  by  train  in  the  morning,  reach  some  of  the  high- 
est peaks,  fish  in  the  most  promising  of  those  lakes  and  return 
to  Laramie  for  dinner  in  the  evening. 

Some  of  the  Best  Fishing  in  the  World. 

Down  the  mountain  sides  and  through  the  valleys  every- 
where the  streams  rush  and  wind.  Deep  pools  and  whirling 
back-waters,  reaches  of  rushing  water  and  quiet  stretches  of 
brush  or  rock-shadowed  bottom  afford  an  ideal  home  for  the 
trout.  Here  the  gamiest  of  their  species,'  the  speckled,  the 
German  and  the  Rainbow,  live  in  numbers  unlimited,  and 
grow  to  attain  a  size  and  fierceness  undreamed  of  by  those 
who  have  never  fished  in  such  waters  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. 

Every  stream  and  every  runlet  will  yield  up  its  leaping 
and  wriggling  treasures  to  the  persistent  fisherman,  while  the 
larger  streams  will  pay  a  goodly  toll — a  toll  which  sometimes 
means  a  thirteen-pounder  to  the  lucky — and  skillful — man,  and 
which  is  not  hard  to  exact  within  the  limits  of  the  city  of  Lara- 
mie itself. 

Curiosities  of  Nature. 

Albany  County  has  more  to  offer  than  the  grandest  of 
scenery,  the  purest  of  air,  the  most  sunny  skies,  the  most 
tempting  of  camping  places  and  fishing  resorts.  Within  its 
borders  are  some  of  the  finest  natural  curiosities  in  the  shape 
of  wind  and  water  eroded  rocks  to  be  found  in  America. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  99 

Twenty-five  miles  south  of  Laramie,  reached  by  one  of  the 
best  roads  in  the  state,  are  a  number  of  natural  features  as 
have  made  certain  localities  in  Colorado  famous  the  world 
over.  Here  for  eight  miles  is  a  succession  of  natural  sculp- 
tures, monuments,  pinnacles,  wind  worn  caves,  lions'  dens  and 
figures  resembling  animals  and  human  beings;  here  are  many 
mysterious  piles  of  rock  which  need  no  vivid  imagination  to 
conjure  into  monster  fortifications  and  cities  of  some  long-for- 
gotten race,  and  here  also  are  the  most  numerous  traces  in  the 
state  of  the  aboriginal  tribes,  which,  before  the  advent  of  the 
white  man,  made  this  region  of  natural  wonder  and  beauty 
a  favorite  camping  place  for  religious  ceremonies.  Indian 
paintings  and  remains  of  Indian  camps  there  are  in  plenty, 
and  after  every  wind  and  rain  storm,  the  sand  and  rock  crev- 
ices will  yield  up  many  beautiful  specimens  of  chipped  flint 
arrow  and  spear  heads  to  the  diligent  searcher. 

Geological  Study. 

As  a  field  for  the  most  profitable  study  of  geological  fea- 
tures, Albany  County  offers  great  inducements.  From  within 
its  borders  some  of  the  most  remarkable  specimens  of  gigantic 
fossil  reptilians  have  been  unearthed,  as  have  also  some  very 
beautiful  specimens  of  smaller  extinct  animals.  The  slopes 
of  the  mountains  and  hills  offer  unlimited  opportunities  to 
study  closely  nearly  all  of  the  most  important  formations 
known  in  the  Rocky  Mountain  geology. 

Transportation  Facilities. 

Albany  County  is  famous  for  its  splendid  natural  roads. 
From  the  City  of  Laramie  the  highways,  for  the  most  part  of 
gravel,  stretch  in  every  direction,  affording  a  splendid  means 
of  reaching  any  part  of  the  county  by  automobile,  bicycle, 
stage  or  wagon.  Most  of  the  summer  resorts  run  automobile 
stages  during  the  summer  from  the  City  of  Laramie,  or  have 
arrangements  made  by  which  automobiles  may  be  obtained. 
The  Union  Pacific  railroad  crosses  the  county  from  southeast 
to  northwest,  and  Laramie  may  be  easily  reached  from  any 
part  of  the  United  States.  The  Laramie,  Hahns  Peak  and  Pa- 
cific Railroad  runs  south  from  Laramie  into  Colorado.  It  has 
opened  up  a  perfectly  marvelous  summer  country  to  the  trav- 
eling public,  and  a  region  which  will  also  become  a  winter 
resort.  Not  one  of  the  many  tourists  and  summer  visitors  who 
have  tasted  of  what  the  Centennial  Valley  and  the  mountains 
which  surround  it  have  to  offer,  has  gone  away  without  mak- 
ing a  vow  that  he  will  come  back  again  whenever  he  has  the 
opportunity. 


ioo  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


The  Kuster  Hotel. 


Johnson  Hotel. 


RESOURCES  01?  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 


101 


The.  Laramie  Plains  line  crosses  many  streams,  all  well 
stocked  with  trout,  and  with  numerous  ranches  occupying  the 
valleys,  whose  owners  are  glad  to  make  provisions  for  the  wel- 
fare of  fishermen  and  tourists,  either  by  accommodating  them 
in  their  homes,  renting  cottages,  or  affording  camping  grounds. 

From  the  prosperous  little  town  of  Centennial,  from  Al- 
bany ten  miles  further  south,  or  from  any  of  the  ranches  and 
resorts  in  the  Centennial  Valley,  there  lies  close  at  hand  a 
world  of  mountains,  valleys  and  streams  which  must  be  seen 
to  be  appreciated.  Every  mile  of  road  or  few  feet  of  climbing 
presents  a  thousand  new  charms  to  the  observer,  and  every 
yard  of  water  has  its  speckled  or  rainbow-hued  tenant  on  the 
lookout  for  a  choice  morsel. 

Generally  speaking,  there  are  good  accommodations,  good 
camping  grounds,  and  the  best  of  fishing  and  scenery  every- 
where within  reach  of  the  Laramie  Plains  line.  For  those 
who  wish  to  go  further  afield,  to  the  wonderful  North  Park 
region,  or  to  the  thickly  wooded  slopes  of  the  Platte  Valley, 
across  the  mountains,  there  is  a  daily  stage  running  from  Al- 
bany to  the  ranches  and  resorts  in  those  regions. 

A  tourist  can  leave  Laramie  in  the  morning  by  the  daily 
passenger  train  of  the  Plains  Line  and  reach  the  Platte  Valley 
or  North  Park  before  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  He  can  leave 
Laramie  in  the  morning  by  the  same  train  and  reach  the  sum- 
mit of  the  Medicine  Bow  Mountains  by  noon,  returning  to  eat 
his  dinner  at  Laramie  in  the  evening. 

All  the  tributaries  of  the  Laramies,  as  well  as  all  of  the 
streams  which  have  their  source  in  the  Medicine  Bow  Moun- 
tains, afford  the  best  of  fishing,  and  are  kept  well  stocked  up 
by  the  fish  hatcheries  at  Laramie  and  Saratoga.  The  North 


117   and   119   First    Street.  107  and  109  Thornburgh   Street 

The  Phillips  Hotel. 


102  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 

Platte  River  is  one  of  the  best  known  places  for  big  trout  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  eleven  and  twelve-pound  rainbows 
being  by  no  means  uncommon,  and  from  six  to  eight  pounds 
being  plentiful. 

Other  streams  in  the  county,  such  as  Sand  Creek,  in  the 
South,  Horse  Creek,  Crow  Creek  and  Chugwater,  in  the  east- 
ern portion,  and  the  North  Laramie  in  the  north,  are  well 
stocked  with  several  species  of  trout.  All  streams  can  be 
easily  reached,  and  everywhere  there  are  ranches  whose  own- 
ers are  glad  to  take  care  of  visitors. 

The  fishing  season  is  open  from  May  I5th  and  the  fish  will 
bite  at  any  time  except  directly  after  a  freshet.  Many  of  the 
ranchmen  keep  their  tables  supplied  with  'the  delicacy  all 
through  the  summer  season. 

Flies  that  take  well  are :  Coachman,  light  and  dark  royal, 
brown  and  gray  hackles,  professor,  queen  of  the  water,  jungle 
cock,  abbey,  black  gnat  and  cowdung. 

Camping  parties  will  find  good  facilities  for  outfitting  at 
Laramie,  or  can  easily  reach  from  there  any  point  in  the  county 
selected. 

Summer  Resorts,  Ranches  and  Camping  Places. 

Among  the  resorts  and  ranches  which  make  a  specialty  of 
caring  for  visitors,  the  following  may  be  mentioned : 

The  Temple  Rock  Ranch,  twenty  miles  southwest  of  Lar- 
amie, can  accommodate  four  to  six  in  the  house,  provide  tents 
and  splendid  camping  grounds.  The  owners  will  provide 
meals  for  campers,  also  well  broken  saddle  horses  and  driving 
horses.  Guides  can  be  hired.  The  fishing  is  good,  there  is 
sage  chicken,  duck  and  rabbit  shooting  in  season.  Eight  miles 
to  timber.  Indian  marks  and  arrow  heads  are  very  plentiful. 
N.  Lundquist,  proprietor. 

The  Cooper  Resort  at  Jelm,  in  the  southeastern  part  of 
the  county,  offers  all  possible  accommodations  to  visitors. 
Will  provide  rooms  and  board,  camping  grounds,  saddle 
horses,  guides,  etc.  Good  fishing,  close  to  the  mountains.  F. 
D.  Cooper,  proprietor. 

The  Mountain  View  Hotel,  Centennial.  On  line  of  the 
Laramie  Plains  Railroad.  In  center  of  Centennial  Valley. 
Best  of  fishing.  Close  to  the  mountains.  Within  easy  reach 
of  the  mountain  lakes.  Rates  $1.50  per  day,  $7.00  per  week. 
Gus  Sundby,  proprietor. 

The  J.  H.  McNealy  Ranch,  at  Albany.  At  upper  edge  of 
the  Centennial  Valley.  Can  care  for  twenty  to  thirty  visitors 
at  a  time.  Saddle  horses  and  teams  for  hire.  Guides  furnished. 


RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING.  103 

Good  fishing  in  several  streams.     Splendid  scenery.     Rates, 
350  meals,  350  beds.    J.  H.  McNealy,  proprietor. 

The  Schroeder  Hotel,  Gleneyre,  Colo.  Within  easy  dis- 
tance of  Laramie  by  stage  or  automobile.  Situated  in  the 
mountains  at  junction  of  Maclntyre  Creek  with  Big  Laramis. 
The  best  of  fishing.  Splendid  scenery.  Can  accommodate 
twenty  visitors  at  a  time.  Guides  and  conveyances  furnished. 
Rates,  $2.00  per  day;  $35.00  per  month.  Henry  Schroeder, 
proprietor. 

The  McCasland  Ranch,  Cowdry,  North  Park.  Can  be 
reached  by  the  Laramie  Plains  railroad  or  by  automobile  from 
Laramie.  Best  of  fishing  and  hunting.  Situated  in  the  moun- 
tains. Can  take  care  of  all  who  come.  Saddle  horses  and 
conveyances  furnished.  Rates,  $1.75  and  $2.00  per  day.  Frank 
McCasland,  proprietor. 

Wright  Ranch.  Fillmore.  Twenty-four  miles  from  Lara- 
mie on  the  Laramie  Plains  railroad.  Can  accommodate  ten  to 
twelve  visitors  and  provide  camping  grounds  for  others.  On 
Little  Laramie  and  close  to  foot  of  mountains.  Saddle  horses 
and  teams.  Rates,  $2.00  per  day,  35c  per  meal.  Special  rates 
by  the  week  or  month.  G.  L.  Wright,  proprietor. 

Gregory  Ranch.  One-half  mile  from  Centennial.  Close 
to  foot  of  mountains  on  North  Fork  creek.  Can  take  care  of 
any  number  of  fishing  and  camping  parties.  Can  accommodate 
twelve  visitors  in  house,  and  provide  meals  as  required  for 
others.  No  charges  made  for  camping  grounds.  Splendid 
fishing.  Hunting  in  season.  Charges  $1.50  per  day  for  room 
and  board.  C.  M.  Gregory,  proprietor. 

Baily  ranch.  Near  Centennial,  upon  the  North  Fork 
Creek.  Can  furnish  room  and  board  for  ten  persons  and 
board  for  twenty.  Good  camping  grounds  near  the  house. 
Charges  $1.50  per  day;  board  alone  $1.00  per  day.  Mrs.  J.  D. 
Baily,  proprietor. 

The  Boggs  Ranch.  Situated  one  mile  from  Albany  on  the 
Laramie  Plains  Railroad.  Can  accommodate  six  persons  in 
house  and  provide  meals  for  others.  Good  camping  grounds. 
Prices  $1.50  per  day,  or  $7.00  per  week.  Alick  Boggs,  pro- 
prietor. 

The  Buckeye  Ranch.  Situated  in  Centennial  Valley  two 
miles  from  Deerwood  and  three  miles  from  Centennial.  Can 
accommodate  ten  at  a  time.  Rates,  35c  per  meal  or  $1.00  per 
day.  Excellent  fishing  close  to  the  house.  Mrs.  Chas.  J.  An- 
derson, proprietor. 

Lovett  Ranch,  Jelm.  Easily  reached  by  stage  or  automo- 
bile from  Laramie.  At  foot  of  Jelm  Mountain.  Big  Lararnie 
River  provides  the  best  of  fishing  and  runs  through  the  ranch. 


IO4  RESOURCES  OF  ALBANY  COUNTY,  WYOMING. 

Mountains  surround  ranch.  Can  accommodate  any  number. 
Rates,  $2.00  per  day,  $10.00  per  week,  $35.00  per  month.  G. 
W.  Lovett,  proprietor. 

Sundby  Ranch.  Within  walking  distance  of  Centennial. 
Splendid  fishing.  Near  Snowy  Range.  Special  rates  upon 
application.  Rev.  N.  G.  Sundby,  proprietor. 

Duck  Shooting. 

There  are  numerous  lakes  in  Albany  County  which  are 
celebrated  throughout  the  state  for  duck  hunting.  The  most 
important  of  these  are  the  Hutton  Lakes  and  Bamforth  Lakes, 
either  of  which  may  be  reached  by  auto  from  Laramie  within 
a  half  or  three-quarters  of  an  hour.  Any  day,  during  the  game 
season,  the  experienced  sportsman  can  bag  mallards,  canvas 
backs,  and  red  heads,  as  they  are  found  by  hundreds  upon 
these  lakes  the  year  around.  The  reservoirs  which  store  water 
for  irrigation  make  excellent  shooting  lakes  and  many  a  good 
bag  has  been  brought  to  the  City  of  Laramie  from  these. 


ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

The  material  for  this  pamphlet  was  collected  from  many 
sources  and  compiled  at  the  request  of  the  Laramie  Chamber 
of  Commerce. 

It  is  believed  to  present  the  real  facts  of  Albany  County, 
and  this  body  is  particularly  indebted  to  Prof.  H.  G.  Knight, 
Director  of  Experiment  Station;  Mr.  A.  D.  Faville,  Animal 
Husbandman ;  Mr.  Aven  Nelson,  Botanist  and  Horticulturist ; 
Mr.  T.  S.  Parsons,  Agronomist,  and  Hon.  W.  H.  Holliday 
and  many  others  for  the  information  furnished. 

J.  E.  WINSLOW, 
Chairman  Executive  Committee. 


Secretary. 
Laramie,  Wyoming,  June  I,  1913. 


